Destined
by pumpkinpiespice
Summary: AU. Just because they walked down the aisle, doesn't mean they could make it through a marriage. Burktina, MerDer and various characters. Slight hints of other pairings from time to time. A fluffy and happy fic with lots of drama.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I was at a boring seminar last week and this plot hit me suddenly. And I started writing immediately once I got home. :) Basically Burke and Cristina got married at season three, but a few years later they got a divorce. In other words the AU started right after the finale of season three. As I wanted to make this a happy fluffy piece, the shooting and the plane crash and the car crush... never happened. Seattle Grace is still Seattle Grace, and Lexie, Mark and Derek are still alive! Yay! I will try my best to update regularly. As always please read and review!

* * *

Chapter 1

 **2017 Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

It is an unusually smooth morning for Cristina Yang, the interim chief of SGMW's Cardio-thoracic Surgery. Since Maggie Pierce left for a job offer in Zurich, and Teddy left for the army with Owen, Cristina has basically been running the department. Everyone knows that it is just a matter of time before she actually become the chief of Cardio.

Cristina walked down the hallway of CCU with a bunch of interns following her. It seems like today is her lucky day: her brainless interns are answering every question correctly, her patients are all recovering steadily, McDreamy finally decided to give up his job in DC, which means she no longer needs to hear Meredith whining, and she can spend the rest of her day in the OR. How great is her day? If Cristina is someone who hugs, she must be hugging everyone in her sight today.

Though her lucky day kind of ended at 10:24am, by Dr Bailey the chief of surgery.

"Cristina, we've got a heart donor in Portland Gen. Can you go there and bring it back?" Bailey ran to Cristina and handed her a patient's chart.

"It's just an organ harvest! You can send any fifth year resident! Shane can do it, or… Wilson? She is quite good. Anyone but me. I've got a full OR schedule today." Cristina quickly skimmed through the chart and gave it back to Bailey while rolling her eyes. She took a quick look at the OR board and added, "Or you can ask Mer to go harvest the heart. I know we both hate a chirpy Meredith."

"As much as I love to see Grey pissed off, no, you are going to Portland Gen." Bailey coldly rejected Cristina's suggestion. Cristina followed Bailey down the hallway and asked,

"With all due respect Dr Bailey, I thought I am the chief of Cardio! Isn't it supposed to be a resident's job to harvest an organ?"

"Let me remind you something Yang, you are the interim chief of Cardio only, not the chief. Second, you might be the chief of cardio, but I am the chief of SURGERY, I outranked you so you need to do as I say. Now get your ass onto a plane and return with a heart as soon as possible. Do you understand?" Bailey stood in front of OR2 with her arms on her waist. Cristina stared at her for a minute, and walked away defeated.

"Hey! You can take Shane with you if you want help!" Bailey yelled at Cristina's back, who replied her mentor with a whiny noise.

* * *

 **Surgical Floor, Portland General**

"So later when we get in there, Brainy will do the assessment, and Shane you will be harvesting the heart. Remember to…" Cristina yawned as she assign her intern and her resident duties. It is just another boring harvesting (not even half as fun as her left ventricle reconstruction, which she should be doing right now), so why not let her suck-ups do all the work?

"To check there is no lacerations in the four chambers and the aorta, to preserve at least 4 inches of the blood vessels for transplant and to make sure the coronary blood flow is normal. Got it Dr. Yang."

"Good. Observe and learn, Brainy." She nodded appreciatively at the resident as she walked into the OR, and dropped her jaw onto the ground.

"10 blade." A tall, dark man was already standing right next to the donor and is ready to make a cut on the donor's chest.

"What the hell?" The intern nicknamed Brainy screamed, asking the same question for Cristina and Shane. The whole surgical team turned and look at the three of them, including the surgeon. As soon as he landed his eyes on Cristina, he frowned.

"Cristina."

"Burke." She couldn't move her eyes from him and whispered his name. The name that haven't been said for almost 5 years already, since the day they finalized their divorce papers.

* * *

Inside the conference room, only the voices of the two world class cardio surgeons could be heard. None of the interns or the residents dare to say a word.

"I see that time may passed but you still haven't changed a bit." A classic Preston Burke style sarcastic smile.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just saying you are still a surgery thief, except you are stealing organs instead of surgeries now."

"Oh don't you dare accuse me of that. You haven't changed a bit too. Still arrogant and pathetic."

"Me? Pathetic? You must be delusional."

"Oh you aren't? UNOS called me and told me I've got a heart. But when I arrived you are already holding a scalpel in your hand! Now you are just doing everything to rob that heart from me. If that isn't pathetic I don't know what is."

"Like I said, I got a call from UNOS too, and I got here before you. That makes you the heart thief!"

The two surgeons stared at each other like they are going to rip their throat open. Just before they actually do that, a woman walks into the conference room. She look around the room quickly and focused on the two surgeons. Then she busted into laughter and creeps everyone out.

"Oh my god. This is definitely the best drama I have ever seen in my life. It has been a long time since I last saw you two, isn't it Dr Burke and Dr Yang? It's just Dr Yang now right?" As she finished, she couldn't help but giggled a bit.

"Erica." "Dr. Hahn." They greet the woman respectively.

"Alright, let's get back to business shall we? I heard that UNOS have informed both Seattle Pres and SGMW that a heart is available. Sorry but didn't it sound oddly familiar to you Preston?" Erica scanned through the records and said. She smile devilishly at Burke as she recalls something from the past. She then continues after receiving a death glare from Burke.

"So here's the thing. UNOS made a mistake with their records. Two separate phone calls were made at the same time by two staff. There is actually only one heart available. And UNOS gave us, Portland Gen, the power to decide who gets the heart. Since I have experienced something like this," She glared at Cristina and Burke in the middle of her announcement, "I decided I will completely judge by looking at the chart only. No labs needed to be fake and no LVAD wires needed to be cut this time."

"Oh geez. You are never letting that go aren't you?" Cristina rolled her eyes and whined.

"Of course." Erica replied fiercely as she finished reading the both charts. "Back to this case, I am going to give the heart to Seattle Pres. It's yours now Preston."

"What the freaking… Hey! I thought you hated him!" Cristina screamed angrily at Hahn, who shrugged and said, "Yeah, of course I hate Preston Burke, but the fact is that his patient has a high risk of pulmonary edema. That makes his patient more urgent than yours. Sorry Yang."

Cristina stared blankly at the ceiling. She doesn't care whether Bailey is going to kill her or not, the only thing she care is the cocky grin on Burke's face. If they are not sitting in a conference room with interns watching, she might actually punch him in his face.

"Looks like you are never going to surpass me, Cristina." Before he left the room, Burke stopped briefly and whispered into Cristina's ears. In her angry glare, he headed towards the OR with a big grin on his face.

"Dr Yang, anything happened between Dr Burke, Dr Hahn and you before?" The intern, Brainy approached his attending and asked curiously.

"Shut it, you are Nosy now."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just to remind you all, as Lexie and Mark are still alive in this AU, it is still Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital.

* * *

Chapter 2

 **2017 Residents' Locker Room, SGMWH, Seattle**

"Hey Shane, I heard Yang lost her heart to Seattle Pres?" Jo walks into the room and asked. She took a granola bar from Stephanie's cubby and started chewing.

"Yeah. She is in a terrible mood now. I strongly advise all of you to leave her alone." Shane shrugged and took a gigantic bite on his sandwich.

"Isn't that just one heart? She will probably get the next one at any time. It doesn't explains her level 10 anger. By the way Jo, get your own snacks!" Stephanie joined the discussion and noticed Jo chewing her last granola bar. She took it back angrily and stuff the remaining into her mouth at once.

"Seattle Pres? Ha, that's why." Ben, who was sitting at the corner quietly, suddenly opened his mouth. The three residents quickly gathered around him, waiting to hear hospital gossips.

"Don't bother. I am not telling you guys. Miranda will kill me if I leak anything to you."

"Is there anything to do with Dr Preston Burke? He is the Cardio surgeon of Seattle Pres. Seems like he had a history with Yang." Shane asked curiously.

"THE Preston Burke? The one who won the Harper Avery three times? The one who successfully implanted a 3D-printed heart into a pig? No way!" The two girls widened their eyes and exclaimed. While Ben chuckled and said, "Of course it has everything to do with Burke. He is Yang's ex-husband…"

"What?" "I thought Yang is a nun!" "You can't stop after dropping a bomb!"

"Ugh… Fine, but don't tell anyone you hear this from me okay?" After receiving promises from the three residents, Ben sighed and began telling the story.

"Burke was Yang's mentor when she was an intern. They got married after she finished her internship. Of course something happened at their wedding, but somehow she made it down the aisle. At first, no one is optimistic about their marriage, everyone thought they are getting a divorce right away, as they are always arguing. But they were happy, so people started to realize that arguing is their way of loving each other."

"Hang on, but you say they were happy! How come they got a divorce?"

"I haven't finish my story! Where was I? Oh okay. So a few years after they got married, their started to have more frequent and more nonsense arguments. They can argue about literally everything. At last, they got a divorce when she was still a fourth year resident. After the divorce, Burke left SGMW to Seattle Pres. Everyone assume that they are getting a divorce because of baby issues. But I heard from Shepherd that they are actually divorced because Yang accidentally used Burke's pancake plates to serve dinner."

"What? That is the dumbest reason of divorce I have ever heard." Jo couldn't stop herself from laughing. Therefore, she didn't sense the sudden change of the looks on her friends' faces.

"Wilson, is the hospital paying you to gossip?" Jo's face got paler right after she heard Meredith's voice. She turned around stiffly and pulled an awkward smile.

Meredith stared at the four residents for a while before she continues, "Warren, go find Dr Shepherd. Wilson and Ross, the pit. And Edwards, you are with Dr Karev today. Go!"

The residents escaped the locker room instantly. Meredith sighed and whipped out her phone and texted Cristina a 911.

* * *

 **5/F Ladies Room, SGMWH**

Cristina leaned against the sink as she chat with Meredith, who is in the cubicle.

"So you went to Portland, competed with Preston over a heart, and lost it because Erica Hahn gave it to him?" Meredith tried her best to summarise everything her friend just said.

"Exactly! Can you believe that?"

"Actually, I can. Come on. You have been a surgeon for more than a decade already, you know how this works. The sicker guy gets the organ!"

"I know… Of course I know that I am a surgeon. It's just… I am outraged."

"Well, why are you angry then? Because you couldn't get a heart for your patient? Or because you lost to Burke?"

Cristina bit her lips hard and didn't make a sound.

"Cristina?"

"Fine! I'm angry because I lost to Burke. I feel like I suck and… You know, after the divorce, he just went on and on with his life. He won the Harper Avery AGAIN; he was chosen as the most valuable surgeon in the West Coast, he got beautiful women surrounding him every day. He lived his life better without me." Cristina pressed her hand onto her forehead and continued.

"But Mer, look at me. I printed freaking conduits for dying kids, but Maggie Pierce got the fancy job at Zurich. I tried to start a new life with Owen Hunt, but guess what! He chose my boss over me, now they are off to some war-zone saving soldiers. I am not even half as good as Preston Burke and I lost to him in everything. He is one of the most talented and eligible bachelor on the West Coast, while I am the sad, pathetic, divorcee who failed at everything. Oh and now I couldn't even get a heart for my patient."

Meredith walked out from her cubicle and washed her hands, "Cristina, you do not suck. Professionally Burke might be better than you for now, but so what? You are a very talented surgeon. One day you will surpass him. I can see that."

Cristina looked into her person's eyes and said, "Thanks… I am totally going to be a much better cardio surgeon than Preston Burke. One day he will be second and I will kick his ass… Meredith?"

While she was talking, Meredith frowned and quickly ducked beside the toilet bowl and started vomiting. Cristina hurried to her side and held Meredith's hair while patting her back gently.

"Okay… What happened to you? Food poisoning? I told you, don't eat Alex's food! God knows how long he had that thing kept in his fridge. Or did Zola caught that stomach flu again?"

"Ugh… Shut up..." Meredith collapsed on the washroom floor after vomiting. Cristina handed her some tissue for clean-up. "I think… I think I am pregnant?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **2017 OBGYN Examination Room, SGMWH**

"Dr Grey. Dr Shepherd. It is very nice seeing the two of you again. Is there anything I can help you with?" The OBGYN, Connie, grinned as she opened the door for Meredith and Derek.

"Um, yes. So, erm, I was not feeling very well a few weeks ago, always nauseous and exhausted and emotional. I thought it's nothing, probably just stress or food poisoning. But it continued for weeks, so I finally took a test and the stick turns blue! I think I am pregnant again, um, I, uh…" Meredith stammered because of her nervousness.

"What she means is that we will need a fetal check-up to make sure we have a healthy baby." Derek smiled warmly and finished for Meredith. Connie nodded her head and said, "Yeah! Of course! Meredith, please pull your top above your tummy and lie on the chair please."

After putting on some gloves, Connie squeezed some jelly on Meredith's belly and located the probe on her uterus.

"Okay, so here's your baby. See? This is the head and the spine is here… Give me a second to see how far along are you. Mm… It looks like 14 weeks to me. You should have taken that test earlier." Connie pressed the 'print' button on the machine, and handed the Shepherds an ultrasound photo.

"Oh, can you let us hear the baby's heartbeat? I wanted to send the audio clip to my mum." Derek grinned at Connie, who nodded and pushed another button on the machine.

"I… I know I am known for being all dark and twisty and negative, so please tell me I am not hearing a murmur." Meredith frowned and twisted her fingers nervously.

"Meredith, Derek, I am afraid it is a murmur. There is… a huge tumour on the baby's heart. Right here." Connie pointed at the screen. Meredith bended forward to look at the screen, and her tear dripped down her cheeks.

"Oh god, a tumour. Our baby is going to die."

"Hey don't… Don't say that so soon! Let's page Arizona to take a look first." Derek kissed his wife on the forehead gently and hold her hand tightly.

* * *

"I hate to say this to parents but I am so sorry, it is a tumour. The good news is, most of the time tumours in babies are benign. But the bad news is…"

"There is no such thing as a benign tumour when it grows on a heart." Derek interrupts calmly. Arizona froze and nodded.

"What options do we have here?" Meredith sniffed and tried to ask calmly, but her voice is still shaky.

"Well, the worst option is termination, but I don't think you will consider that, so let's talking about more aggressive approaches. We can do surgery, you can either wait until the baby is born to operate, but the risk will be a lot greater at that time; or you can consider fetal surgery."

"Fetal surgery? Tell me what you are going to do."

"We will open up the uterus and half deliver the baby, then I will bring in a cardio surgeon to remove the tumour. After the surgery we will put the baby back into the uterus and wait for the baby to be full term. In the past five years there are more than a hundred successful cases. I think it's worth trying." The blonde surgeon sat down beside Meredith and hold her hand.

Meredith and Derek exchanged glances for a brief second, then she took a deep breath and said, "Yes, we will do the fetal surgery."

"Okay, so I will page Cardio here for a consult first, then we will let you know the surgical plan. Because you are already 14 weeks along, we have to move faster."

"Wait! I want Cristina doing the surgery. If someone have to cut into my baby's heart, I want that person to be Cristina."

* * *

-"Mer? What happened?" Cristina came into the exam room right after Meredith put down her phone. Arizona briefly filled her in on the baby's condition. Cristina leaned towards the ultrasound machine to observe the heart carefully.

"Cristina… Is it bad? Can you operate on it?" Derek asked as he saw Cristina doesn't look confidence.

"Um? Oh yeah… Of course, I can do it." She smiled at him and squeezed Meredith's hand to comfort her. Meredith took a deep breath to relax and smiled as well.

As Cristina helped Meredith get up from the examination bed, Derek quietly step out of the room. He leaned on the wall outside the exam room and dialed a number he haven't called in a while.

"Hey, it's me, Derek. I need a favor from you, can you come to Grey Sloan and perform a surgery? Yes I know, but the patient is Meredith, I want the best for her. Thanks. I will let you know when we are going to operate."

* * *

A/N: It wouldn't be Seattle Grace if we don't have some cruel drama on Meredith right? And I really wanna write some surgical scene in my fics :) I promise I won't kill Meredith and baby Ellis(Seriously? Grey's Anatomy Fanfic WITHOUT Grey?), so don't freak out and keep on reading please :)))))


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: My first surgical clerkship is beginning in two days! (FYI: I am a nursing student) And I am so so so excited! But that also means lots and lots of long shifts and I probably won't be able to update regularly... :( I promise I will type whenever I can!

* * *

Chapter 4

 **2017 Maternity Ward, SGMWH**

When Cristina walked into Meredith's room, Derek, Lexie and Mark are already there. While Lexie is busy showing Meredith the photos she took during her honeymoon, Derek and Mark are talking about last night's soccer game.

"Ahm-um." Cristina cleared her throat loudly to gain their attention. Lexie stood up from her chair immediately and tucked Mark's sleeve,

"Mark, let's go get some coffee for everyone while Cristina check on Meredith."

"Get a hot chocolate for Meredith, she shouldn't be having caffeine." Derek reminded the couples as they leave the room.

"Alright, who is presenting today?" Cristina turned around and put on her kick-ass boss face. A red-headed girl raised her hand and squeezed her way through the crowd of interns. She flipped to the first page of the chart and started reading.

"Meredith Grey, 38, 20 weeks pregnant. Admitted for fetal heart surgery. Baby is diagnosed with a progressive benign myxoma originated from the left atrium, affecting the aorta and the vena cava. Blood work comes back clean, but the ultrasound shows an invasion into the left ventricle."

"Good. Um, you, drowsy, what modifications should be made to the surgical plan as the tumour is invading aggressively?" Cristina nodded in appreciation, and pointed at one intern for answers. The intern nicknamed drowsy immediately started to flip through his notebook. However, nothing related to this surgery could be found. Just before Cristina throw him some sarcastic remarks, a deep, manly voice started talking.

"Previously, we planned to half deliver the baby and simply scrap off all bits of tumour. But with this kind of progression, a partial replacement of aorta and vena cava should be prepared. Also, we are looking at possible atrium and ventricular reconstruction. The worst case scenario is that the fetus will need a heart transplant immediately after born."

Cristina's body stiffens once she heard his voice. It's him, Preston Burke. She will never forget his voice.

"Preston! Why are you here?" Meredith exclaimed in surprise. Nobody told her Preston Burke would be here. She peeked at Cristina, and figures that she had no idea too.

"Hey Preston. Thanks for coming." Derek put on his McDreamy Smile and hugged his friend. "I invited Preston here for a consult. I thought it is a good idea to have him here, two brains are better than one right?"

* * *

 **Maternity Ward, SGMWH**

"Derek Christopher Shepherd! How dare you invite him here without telling me! I am the cardio surgeon on this case!" Cristina barked angrily at Derek, her eyes is filled with venom.

"I am sorry. But this is Meredith we are talking about. I want everything to be the best for her."

"So you think I am not the best?"

"Honestly? Honestly, Cristina, you are very good. You are an excellent surgeon. But Burke, he has a lot more experience than you. That's why I want him to be the leading surgeon."

"Fine. He can do the surgery. I will find myself a seat in the gallery then." Cristina slapped the door closed angrily. Meredith looked at her husband with a disapproval look.

"What? Burke is the best cardio surgeon in the country, we know it and she knows it. Cristina will come around." Derek patted his wife's shoulder and comforted her.

"I know. But you should at least tell her before Burke arrives. It's not cool for her to find out like this." Meredith stared at the window. Suddenly, she think of something and she quickly turned her head facing Derek.

"Derek… I don't know exactly what are you up to, but I don't think you only invite Burke here to work on the baby."

"I have been having drink nights with Burke for a long time now. I can feel that he still loves her. And obviously Burke still has a place in Cristina's heart, if not I don't know why she didn't leave with Owen Hunt." Derek sat down beside Meredith and pushed a strand of her hair to the back of her ear.

"You want to get them back together?"

"Well… That's the plan. The two of them are the most stubborn people I have ever met. They really need some push."

"Derek…" Meredith shook her head and smiled at her husband's optimism. "Just don't let Cristina figures this out, I don't want you dead."

* * *

 **Skywalk Corridor, SGMWH**

Cristina was leaning over the fence of SGMW's famous skywalk corridor when a cup of steaming coffee appears in front of her. Without looking up, she took the cup of coffee and sipped it before she talked.

"You know, bringing me coffee won't make me fall for you anymore."

"I know, and I am not bringing you coffee because I want to get in your pants. It is a coffee for coworkers. Since we are going to work on Grey's baby together, I figured we should have a more… friendly relationship."

"Huh, interesting. As I can recall, you are the one being hostile to me. You moved away from our apartment immediately after we sign the papers. Then you leave the hospital the day after, without even telling me. Oh your mama, even we are no longer together, I still put up with her and chat with her on phone every month. I have always been friendly. It is you that are hostile to me." Burke's words seemed to ignited Cristina's anger. She growled and stared at him bitterly.

"And one more thing, I am not scrubbing in with you. You can do it yourself, Dr Burke." She added before walking away.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I figured I should probably post another chapter before drowning in the sea of bedpans... This chapter is a **THROWBACK** chapter. In this chapter we are going back to the time when Cristina and Burke got a divorce. PS, I really like the scene in season 3's finale, when Meredith had to cut Cristina out from her wedding dress. So I decided to change the plot a bit and use it in my fanfic:) Please read and review!

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Chapter 5

 **2011 Burke And Cristina's Apartment, Seattle**

"Oh come on Burke. It's just a set of plates! Sorry if I am too busy to give a damn to which plate I am using for dinner." Cristina shouted sarcastically at the bathroom door. She swallowed a slice of chicken and stared angrily at the man who stuck his head out from the bathroom.

"No. It is not only a problem of plates." Burke replied savagely. He stepped out from the bathroom topless and continued, "The plates are just a hint."

"A hint of what? Your unbearable stubbornness?"

"No, a hint of you not giving a damn to me and to our marriage."

"Excuse me? I don't care? If I don't care, I won't be bringing you food after a 20 hours shift. If I don't care I wouldn't be flipping through these stupid catalogues, searching for your Mama's birthday gift." Cristina stood up from the couch and slapped the magazine she was holding onto the ground.

"Yeah, but did you notice anything different in our home? Like the new couch, the new lamp, and the new bed? After five years of marriage you can't even remember which plate is for breakfast and which is not!" He took a breath after his outburst, slowly added, "Maybe it is a complete mistake. Maybe we shouldn't be getting married at all."

"Right, maybe I should have left that freaking chapel when you offer me a way out." She bitterly and slapped the bedroom door close. Burke sat down on the couch and pressed his hand to his forehead. He stared at the gift catalogue abandoned on the floor by Cristina, then he got up, threw on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans before he left the apartment.

* * *

 **3rd floor Nurses Station, Surgical Wing, SGMWH**

Meredith was finishing her post op notes when Cristina sat down beside her with two cups of coffee in her hands.

"Wow, you brought me coffee!" Meredith was about to grab the cup when Cristina smacked her arm.

"That's not for you. It's for Burke. We got into a fight last night over some stupid dishes. And I think that maybe I should be the one apologizing this time."

"Oh, that's why he came to my place last night and watched football game with Derek." Meredith shrugged and put the chart back to the shelf.

"He is really mad last night, he even say something about divorce."

"Dude, how come you and Burke can always find something to argue about?" Alex smirked and said. He was standing behind the girls when they started talking.

"Shut up evil spawn, its called marriage, something you will never experience."

"Crack whore." Alex cursed and walked into a patient's room nearby with Jackson, who couldn't stop laughing at all.

"Hey Shepherd. Have you seen Burke this morning?" As Derek walks by, Cristina stopped him and asked. Derek looked at her with a face mixed with guilt, fear and pity before he answered, "Um, no. He kind of have a thing to do this morning."

After answering Cristina's question briefly, he quickly walked away from the nurse's station, as if he was running from something horrifying. Although Cristina is doubtful about Burke's "thing to do this morning", she didn't think into it deeply as she just assume she forgot.

Later that day, Cristina had just scrubbed out from a long surgery when her pager beeps loudly. She followed the page and arrived at the nurse's station. A man in suit was waiting for her there.

"Hi. I am Dr Cristina Yang. You need something?"

"Nice to meet you Dr Yang. In fact, I have something for you." The man shook her hand gently before he open his briefcase. He took a brown envelope out from his suitcase and handed it to Cristina along with his business card. "Please read the document inside carefully. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Goodbye Dr Yang."

* * *

Cristina sat down on the sofa in April's office, next to Jackson and Meredith.

"Hey, what are you holding?" Jackson managed to squeeze a few words out while stuffing potato chips into his mouth.

"No idea. I am opening it now. Ugh, hand me the scissors Apes." She grab the scissors and opened the envelope swiftly. Everyone in the room gathered around curiously. But as soon as the paper inside was revealed, all of them grasped and couldn't believe what they are looking at.

"Are those… divorce papers? Dr Burke gave you divorce papers?" April exclaimed in shock while everyone looked at Cristina, not sure what to say.

"Cristina, call Burke and see what is going on first." Meredith gave Cristina her phone and suggested.

But Cristina didn't took it. All she could do is staring blankly at the piece of paper.

* * *

 **Attorney's firm, Seattle**

Cristina and Burke were sitting on the two sides of the table, they stared at each other without saying anything. The attorney representing Burke, Mr Marcus, cleared his throat and began.

"Today we are here to finish up the divorce of Dr Burke and Dr Yang. From the list we got, it shows that Dr Burke and Dr Yang only own one set of apartment on 16th Avenue, Seattle. According to the wish of my client, Dr Yang could take the apartment."

"So I guess we have settled everything." Cristina's attorney, Ms White said. "Great, so Dr Yang, just sign here, here and… here."

Cristina took the pen given to her by Ms White, she glared at the line she is supposed to sign on, and look at Burke with tears in her eyes.

"Do you really want this? The divorce?"

"I…" Burke stumbled as he tries to answer her. He loves Cristina, he will probably love her for the rest of his life. But their marriage is exhausting and consuming. The endless arguments and make up sex annoyed him. He no longer feels happy and loved when he got home. When love started to be replaced by anger and frustration, he no longer sees the reason for him to continue with this marriage.

"I don't want us to end up like those couple who can only talk about weather, cause that is the only thing they won't fight about. I don't want to do this anymore Cristina. The arguing and the not talking is exhausting, I can't…"

"Do. You. Want. This." She interrupted him and demanded for an answer. A drop of tear slide down her cheeks, but she quickly wiped it away.

"Yes, I want this." He sighed. Maybe they are just never meant to be.

"Fine." Cristina scribbled her name onto the paper quickly. When she was done with the papers, she pulled away the ring on her finger and passed it to Burke with the signed divorce papers. She then stood up and left the room, without looking at him one last time.

* * *

 **Burke and Cristina's Apartment, Seattle**

"Watch out, there's a step ahead of you… Okay, where's your key?" Meredith tried her best to keep a drunk Cristina still. After Cristina finished her divorce, she met with Meredith at Joe's for drink. After pouring a whole bottle of Vodka into her stomach, Cristina was so drunk that she could barely walk. Therefore, Meredith had to take Cristina back to her apartment.

"Oh, got it." Meredith fished the key out from Cristina's bag. She unlocked the door and let her friend get in.

"Mer… He's gone…" Cristina murmured drunkenly.

"What? Um, I don't think he is gone. Look, his books are still here, and his shoes… He is not gone. Yet."

"No… his Eugene Foote albums were here, his trumpet… was here, his lucky scrub cap should be hanging on the door knob, and the picture of his grandmother… is gone… He is gone…"

"Cristina…"

"He is gone, and I am free. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it…" The rest of her words were blurred by her sobs. Meredith hugged her person from behind and tried her best to withhold her own tears.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Sorry for this belated update! My rotation is sooooo exhausting! I basically have no time to rest and can only type with my phone on the subway... But trust me, I am not going to abandon my fic! :) As usual please read and review!

* * *

Chapter 6

 **2017 OR3, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle  
**  
Meredith took multiple deep breaths as she listen to the OR staff walking around, preparing for the procedure. She had been in this OR many times before, either as the surgeon or the patient. However, this is the first time she felt this uncontrollable, earth-shattering fear.

She wasn't afraid when she was drown or when she donated part of her liver to Thatcher; and she sure as hell wasn't afraid when she gave birth to Bailey in the dark. Maybe because she never did this surgery herself. People are often scared when facing unknown.

Noticed her shivering on the table, Arizona bent over beside her ears and asked, "Meredith, are you cold? I can get you a blanket."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I am not cold. I am okay." Sounds more like hinting to herself than replying Arizona. Arizona shrugged and went on checking the instruments with the scrub nurse.

"Meredith." Another person whispered beside her. She turned her head and saw Burke. Although the mask was covering most of his face, she can still picture his warm smile by looking at his eyes.

"It is okay to be scared. You are the patient today, you are allowed. Just remember, you are with some very fine surgeons. There is nothing to be worried about."

"I am not… Just, for Derek's sake, for Cristina's sake, please don't kill me."

"I promise, you will not die on my table." Burke smiled again at Meredith, then he gestured the anaesthesiologist to put Meredith to sleep.

"Patient Meredith Grey, 21 weeks pregnant. Scheduled for a fetal heart tumour recession. The procedure will be done in an ex-uterine method." The scrub nurse briefly announced the procedure.

"Okay, 10 blade." Arizona took a breath before asking for the scalpel. Burke, who is standing right next to her, whispered,

"It's a beautiful day to save lives."

* * *

 **Gallery of OR 3, SGMWH  
**  
A crowd of interns and residents are already gathered in the gallery to observe this once in a lifetime surgery. Of course, some of them are there because of Dr Grey, and some are there to observe THE Dr Burke operate. Derek was in another room with Mark distracting him, while Lexie was sitting in the first row next to Jo, biting her nails and peeking anxiously.

"Oh my god, look at that baby! It is so tiny. You don't think Dr Burke will squash it right?" As Arizona gently brings the foetus out from the amniotic membrane and landed it on Burke's palm, Stephanie exclaimed in excitement.

"Come on, he is a heart surgeon, we heart surgeons are trained to handle delicate tissues." Shane rolled his eyes for his colleagues' stupid comment.

"Excuse me, please don't classify yourself as one of THE cardio surgeons. See that technique? Even Yang couldn't do it as perfect as Dr Burke. Not to mention you." Jo smirked and high-five with Stephanie for getting back at Shane.

"Dr Ross, may I know why Dr Burke is using forceps to remove the tumour tissues instead of using suction?" One of Shane's intern asked.

"Well, um…"

"That is because a 21 weeks fetus is still very delicate. Using suction may result in tearing of tissue easily, so for experienced surgeons, using forceps is safer." Cristina stepped into the gallery and answered the question. "Read a book or use your brain for god sake. There are much more things you could do with your brain than deciding what to eat for lunch. Ponytail, move."

Jo stood up from her chair and gave Cristina her seat. She sat down, took a bit on a chocolate bar and asked Lexie, "Where are they now?"

"Burke had just started on removing the tumour. Looks like he is starting from the left ventricle."

"Okay. And stop biting your nails! You are a surgeon!" Cristina frowned as she saw Lexie keep biting her nails. She pulled Lexie's hand away from her mouth and whispered.

"Oh, right. I will stop it." Lexie pushed a strand of hair to the back of her ear and try to focus at the surgery. Cristina looked at her face and gently patted the younger surgeon's hand.

"Don't freak out, there's nothing for you to be worried. Burke is very good, Meredith will be fine."

"Okay. Okay. Cristina, are you… Don't you think you can handle the surgery? Is that why you gave up scrubbing in?"

"What? Of course not! Why the hell… Are you seriously gonna ask me why I am not scrubbing in?"

"No, I understand, Um, let's just… let's just focus on the surgery." Lexie forced a fake smile. She was under Cristina's service the week after Burke left SGMW. She can still vividly recall that time when Cristina kept singing 'Like A Virgin' in the morgue, while she practiced on the corpse. Of course she knows why Cristina won't scrub in with Burke.

"Damn it. I nicked the umbilical vein. Damn it." Suddenly, Burke cursed loudly and reached for a pile of lap pads. When he peels off a piece of the tumour, his forceps accidentally scratched across a major blood vessel, which cause a lot of blood lost.

"Doctor, her BP is dropping. 70/40." The anesthesiologist shouted. Everyone immediately turned their head towards the direction of the monitor, which shows Meredith's blood pressure keeps on dropping.

"Oh god. What happened?" Lexie rose from her seat and lean on the gallery window with tears starting to build up in her eyes. Cristina followed her, trying to take a better look at the situation. She looked at those hands in Meredith's body anxiously, the powerlessness she felt when she heard about Izzie and George's death rushed back, her body couldn't help but shivered.

As she felt like her tears are going to fall, she saw a pair of warm, chocolate brown eyes looking at her. She knows this glance. It is the kind of glance he would give her when she was covering up his tremors for him. When she saw this glance, it means that she has to take over for him.

"He is asking for help…" Cristina murmured. Lexie looked at her in confusion, "What did you say?"

"I am scrubbing in." Cristina quickly squeezed her body through a crowd of audiences and headed towards OR 3.

* * *

A/N: I can assure you all that Meredith and baby Ellis are not going to die, but I am gonna create some suspense... mruhahaha!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 **2017 OR3, SGMWH, Seattle**

Once Cristina arrived at the scrub room, April was already there cleaning her nails.

"Cristina! You should not be here! You are not supposed to be working on Meredith!" She screamed as she saw Cristina took a pack of soap from the rack.

"No, I need to get in there. He couldn't fix it on his own." Cristina ignored April and tied the mask around her neck. The red head surgeon was surprised by what her just said.

"Woah, no. Arizona paged me just in case. Dr Burke didn't say anything. He didn't ask for you. Please, Cristina, let us do our job. You are technically her family. We are not supposed to…"

"Every freaking person in this hospital is her family." April's tiny figure couldn't stop Cristina marching into the OR. She threw her hand into the air in frustration, and pulled a mask over her face before following Cristina.

"Burke, I am here." Cristina's tear was about to run down her face when she saw Meredith on the table, looking as pale as a corpse and have a thick tube inserted into her mouth. But she knows that she has to pull it together for her person, so she tried her best to suppress her fear.

"Yang! I paged Kepner not you!" Arizona didn't thought she would march into the OR. It is not that Cristina is incapable, it is just too cruel for her to operate on her best friend. Arizona can still vividly recall the day when Callie was in a car crash.

She was devastated when she saw Callie covered in shredded glass and blood. She wanted to help, and was furious when Richard kicked her out of the OR. But deep down? She knows that Webber was right. She couldn't trust herself not to have a breakdown when she slide the scalpel on Callie.

Arizona's mind was only out for a few seconds, but Cristina already made her way through the scrub nurses surrounding them to Burke's side.

"Talk to me, Burke. What do you want me to do?"

Burke didn't answer her. He just look up from the wound and stared right into Cristina's eyes. Only one glance is enough for her to understand what he wants and what he was thinking. She returned him an assured glance and ordered the nurse,

"Get me two bags of FFP, a bag of factor VII, more lap pads and right angled clamps. I need more lights in here."

Once the nurse got everything she needed, Cristina handed Burke some clamps when she soaked the lap pads with blood. The two of them worked seamlessly as if they are controlled by the same brain. They know exactly what the other person wanted to proceed. Gradually, the blood loss reduced its rate and provided a better view.

"Right there, I found the tear. Cristina, clamp the vein there and get me some 2-0 silk."

"Right away doctor." The scrub nurse handed him the suture he needed. As Burke began to sew the tear, Cristina's hand moved accordingly to make it easier for him. The tear was not huge, so the repairing was done within seconds. Burke breathed out relived, but the monitor began to beep.

"V-fib. Charge to 200. Clear." Burke picked up the paddle immediately and gave Meredith a shock. Nothing has changed. She was still in V-fib. After two more try, her heart flat-lined, Burke instantly started CPR. Cristina felt like she couldn't breathe. She looked up at the gallery and saw Lexie crying uncontrollably and Derek, who couldn't stop himself from watching the surgery, sobbing silently. Cristina grabbed Meredith's hand and said,

"Come on. Come on Mer. Come back to us Meredith, like what you've done after you were drown. Please, you can't leave Derek, Lexie, Zola,Bailey and I… Come on… Live. Live Meredith! I will never forgive you if die here, right now, on my watch! Can you hear me? I won't forgive you if you died!"

As if Meredith heard her, her heart started beating again. Cristina stared at the monitor and finally letting the tears she had been withholding flow freely.

"Dr Yang, are you ready to continue with the procedure?" Everyone has returned to their position except Cristina. Arizona couldn't help but asked.

"Yes, of course. But, um, could you wipe my tears for me please? Thank you." Cristina whispered to a scrub nurse near her and tried to ignore the giggles from her colleagues.

* * *

 **Maternity Ward, SGMWH**

Cristina gently closed the door of Meredith's room, trying her best not to disturb the McDreamys. She sat down on one of the chairs in the nurse's station and started writing the post-op notes.

"I thought Burke did the surgery." Alex peeped at her chart from behind and asked. Some crumbs of his Danish landed on her head. Cristina swept off the crumbs annoyed.

"If you can't keep the crumbs in your mouth, don't eat it." She sighed and wheeled away from Alex. "Burke disappeared once the surgery was done. So I have to chart for him."

"I heard he made a mistake and almost killed Mer?"

"It's nothing near that alright? He nicked the umbilical vein, but it was under controlled. Mer is fine now, that's the only thing matters."

"Whoa, calm down. I am just asking. Don't be so dramatic. Jeez." Alex was apparently surprised by Cristina's over-reaction. "I am a freaking fetal surgery fellow. I understand how easy it is to accidentally cut a blood vessel."

"I know. I just… don't like your tone. You sounded like a cop."

"And you sounded like a bitch. Seriously though, if I weren't your friend, I would definitely say you have a thing for him."

"That doesn't scream friend to me." Cristina shot Alex an angry glare before got up from her chair.

"Where are you going?"

"A quiet place so I can chart without being distracted."

"Ha, you mean to screw Burke without being disturbed?"

The only thing answering Alex is Cristina's finger.

* * *

Cristina, carrying two cups of coffee with Meredith's chart under her arm, peeked into one on-call room and shut its door. Cristina keep on telling herself that she is only searching for Burke so she can finish the notes and go home. Which, is actually unnecessary, as she was in the OR basically the whole time herself. Burke can't tell her anything she doesn't already knew.

But still she is disappointed whenever she walks into an empty on-call room. She doesn't think Alex could see through her, but she couldn't explain why her legs are guiding her to search for him. Maybe because her brain kept on replaying the day when Eugene Foote died on his table, how Burke grieved and doubted himself in a dark on-call room, and how that makes her heart aches. Just now, he nearly killed Meredith by mistake, that guilt must be eating him alive. She felt like she has to be with him. AS A FRIEND.

Finally, she arrived at one specific on-call room. Being a surgeon is tough, and most of the time it means sleeping on bulk beds in hospital on-call rooms. Among the numerous rooms in SGMW, this is the one she never slept in after the divorce. It is the room where everything started: their first sexual encounter, the room where they finally established their romantic relationship, the room where she comforts him after Eugene Foote's death, the room where she found him when he was missing on their wedding day… She couldn't bear to walk into a place with so much memories after the person she create these memories with had left her.

She grasped the door knob, and twisted it after taking a few deep breaths.

"There you are."

* * *

A/N: Thank you for all of your kind reviews! I got really motivated to write when my readers ask for updates! Just to give you all a heads-up, I am going on a volunteer trip to Cambodia soon, probably won't bring my laptop with me... But I will try to update with my iPad when i have a better internet connection! I am going to update one or two more chapters before I left for the trip, it shouldn't be a long wait... I guess? :D


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: This chapter is a **THROWBACK** chapter. In this chapter we are going back to Burktina's wedding day. I know not everyone loves a flashback chapter, but I am a huge fan of Scandal and I really enjoy the occasional flashback episodes they did on the show, that's why I keep writing throwbacks...Anyway, if you find this chapter bothering you, feel free to skip it, the fashbacks have nothing to do with the present timeline :D

* * *

Chapter 8

 **2007 Intern's Locker Room, Seattle Grace Hospital, Seattle**

"Cristina! What are you doing here! I thought the wedding is starting in… erm, 2 hours?" Carrying George's tuxedo, Callie rushed into the intern's locker room and found Izzie and Meredith working on Cristina's face.

"I know I have to be there. But MAMA took my eyebrows and I am so not walking down the aisle without my eyebrows."

"So you two are drawing her eyebrows. Huh." Callie leaned forward to observe Izzie's work, apparently she is surprised by how good Izzie is with makeup.

"Okay, I finished with Cristina. Who's next?" Izzie handed Cristina a mirror and asked cheerfully. Although she is still worrying about her relationship with George, weddings can always cheer her up.

"You can do Meredith's first, she hasn't even get dressed. Where is George by the way?"

"Haha, how would I know." The three girls shot Izzie a suspicious glare, as Izzie trying very hard to act like guilt-free.

"I bumped into Bambi on the way down here. He mentioned something about getting our intern exam results at the Chief's office." Alex pulled his scrub shirt off and answered.

"They got our results already?" Cristina, who has been unusually quiet since her eyebrows been shaved off, asked.

"No, you have to go. You are going to be late! You don't want to be late at your own wedding right? Meredith, grab her arms and let's go." Izzie hopped off the bench and said. Meredith nodded and started pulling Cristina's arm.

"Fine! I will go now. Callie, are you going to wait here for George? Make sure he text me my results. Thanks."

"Just go to your wedding. It's not like you are going to fail or anything." Alex smirked as Izzie helped him with his tie. "Hey Grey, can I catch a ride with you three?"

* * *

 **Wedding Chapel, Seattle**

Izzie peeked into the chapel and reported to Cristina and Meredith.

"Cristina! Don't worry. You still have time to rewrite your vows! Burke isn't here yet, he must be caught in the surgery."

"I scrubbed off my vows! What should I do!" Cristina screamed at her bridesmaids anxiously.

"Dude, just try to remember what you wrote the first time. How hard can it be? You already wrote the first one."

"I didn't write the vow. Meredith and Callie did." Cristina sighed and collapsed on a chair nearby. "Alright, Izzie, come up with something."

"How am I supposed to tell you what to write in your vow?"

"You just did it last night! Seriously Izzie, just give me some of those chick flick crap, something like I can't breathe without him or my heart won't beat without him. But elaborate. Make it sound… realistic."

"Actually, don't say something about your heart stop beating. Burke's vow kind of used that already… oops." Meredith and Callie looked at Izzie angrily as she just told Cristina Burke's vow.

"Izzie! You are not supposed to tell her Burke's vow! Okay, let us all calm down for a second and think. Cristina, what do you think about this wedding?"

"Uh… annoying? Dumb?"

"Pretend you are… um… dying. Pretend you are dying and this is the last thing you can say to Burke. What would you say?" Callie step forward and grabbed Cristina's hand. She stared at her with her beautiful eyes, Cristina slowly calmed down and an idea hit her.

"Oh! Got it! Someone give me a pen?" Cristina took the pen Alex handed her and ran off to a corner, started working on her vow.

"Meredith? Can I talk to you for a second? Privately." Derek's voice appeared suddenly. Meredith turned around and replied coldly, apparently she is still angry for him breaking up with her in the locker room.

"If you want to say something to me, say it here. I am sure Izzie, Alex and Callie won't mind hearing what you have to say." The three of them immediately turned their head away from the couple. But the atmosphere in the room is still tense. Derek bite his lips nervously, when he finally sighed and decided to talk, Addison opened the door and asked,

"Burke is still not here? Does Cristina knows where is he?"

"What do you mean by Burke is still not here?" Meredith asked suspiciously. Hey eyes widen as she figured out something, "So he is not caught up in surgery but he didn't show up… Wait, do you think he…"

Derek and Addison exchanged a glare and nodded.

"When we scrubbed out from surgery, he asked me something about… Like, can a marriage work if one person wants it more than the other." Addison added, "It sounds like he's really bothered. But he had that beautiful vow all written! I didn't think he would really ditch his wedding so I didn't question him…"

"Have you guys tried his cell? Or tried to page him? Maybe he is still in the hospital."

"Good thinking Alex, of course we did. Looks like he switched off the both. So we think Cristina may know where he would go."

"Cristina may know what?" Cristina's voice joined the conversation unexpectedly and gave everyone a scare. Addison gave Derek a look, warning him not to say a word. But Derek didn't care about her warning and said, "Cristina. Burke isn't here yet and we can't contact him. We are thinking, maybe, he… Um, so we wanted to see if, uh, maybe you will know where he is."

Cristina blinked blankly, trying to comprehend what Derek just said. She is not a moron, of course she can put two and two together: he is bailing on her. How dare him! She spent the past month preparing for this stupid ceremony, which she could spent on studying for exam; she put on a white, fluffy wedding dress with sequin and lace on it; she wore that choking family choker and allowed his mama shave off her eyebrows! She sacrificed so much for him and he is trying to dump her? No freaking way! At least she has to kick his ass hard before calling off the wedding!

"Izzie, could you give me a ride back to the hospital? I think I know where Burke would be."

"Hey! I can give you a ride! I am your maid of honour! I should be doing this!" Meredith protested to Cristina. She sure as hell doesn't want to spend time with Derek.

"Exactly. You are my maid of honour, you should stay here with the best man! So someone can update the guest if anything happened." Cristina patted her friend's hand gently. "Plus, we don't need another couple breaking up today."

"Erm, Callie, maybe we should go with them. In case they need some help." Addison adjusted her necklace and asked. Callie nodded immediately and followed Izzie to the car.

"Wait! Take me with you please. I am not going to be with those two." Alex grabbed Addison's arm and pleaded. He looked oddly sincere, which nearly made her giggle. Addison looked at Meredith and Derek, who are trying to keep distance from each other, and agreed. After all, it is inhumane to let anyone stuck between those two.

* * *

 **3/F Nurse's Station, SGH**

"Cristina, where do you think he is?"

"I am not sure either. You guys can just… go and search everywhere. We will keep in contact." Cristina said to her friends before she held her annoyingly long train in her fist and left. Actually, she knows exactly where Burke would be. There's only one place he would go on this day in this hospital.

She knocked gently on the door of an on-call room, but no one answered. She braced up and twisted the door knob. There he is, sitting at the bottom bulk, surprised by her arrival.

He smiled at her faintly, and quickly looked away, refusing to have eye contact with her. He triggered Cristina's anger as she slammed the door behind her and stand in front of him.

"Are you… are you breaking up with me? If you are, all you have to do is to give me a signal, a text maybe, even better? A conversation, face to face. You just have to tell me and I will disappear right away. But you don't get to stood me up in a freaking wedding chapel!"

She wiped off a tear at the corner of her eyes and continued, "Damn it. See what I did for you? I wore a dress for you, I put on make-up and high heels and your family choker for you. I did all these because you want it. So tell me, which part is upsetting you? Tell me. We still have time to fix it."

"This is exactly what I think is wrong. Cristina, you don't want this. You never want any of these. You did these for me, to make me happy. But Cristina, are you happy? If I am a good man, a man who loves you and cherishes you, I should free you from all these suffering. I should set you free. I should not force you to become someone you aren't. I am offering you a way out. Go. You are free now."

Cristina stared at Burke blankly. Then she began to laugh, with tears forming in her eyes.

"Burke. Preston… You think I changed myself to please you? Oh come on. I admit. I hated all these wedding ceremony crap, but I do want a marriage. I want to marry you, I just don't want to make a big fuss about it. And yes I agreed to a huge wedding because you want it, does it makes me a different person?

"I once told the chief that I've got soft since I came to Seattle. I wanted the old me back, the Cristina Yang who doesn't give a crap about anyone, who is focused and competitive… Then I realised, that is not me going soft, that is me becoming more humane. And it is all because of you. You make me a better person. You taught me how to love, to care and to compromise. I am compromising because it pleases you, and I get happy when you are happy.  
"I don't think I am suffering, because… Because it is worthwhile if it makes you grin like a four years old. That is supposed to be my vow. But whatever, it's not like I still need it or something."

Cristina finished her speech and dried her cheeks with the back of her hand. She hold the train of her gown and walks toward to door, but Burke grabbed her wrist before she can touch the door knob. Her body froze when his hand touched her skin, and before she can react, Burke pulled her into his arms from behind. She struggled to get away from him, yet he is so much stronger than her. Locked in his embrace, Cristina gave up struggling and allow him to hug her tightly.

"I… never know all of these. I am sorry."

"Of course, because you always think you are right."

"I am really, really sorry. I always think that I am the one who loves more. I…"

"Okay okay, we know that. Can we please focus on what's important now?" Before Burke can finish his sentence, Callie and Addison broke into the room, both looking annoyed.

"How long have you two been listening to us?"

"Erm, since you say you told the chief that…"

"What do you two want actually?" Watching Cristina's cheeks blushed, Burke is kind enough to stop Callie from giggling like a school girl.

"Preston Burke! It's your freaking wedding day! Your guests are still waiting at the chapel!"

"Oh right. Do you… still want to go get married?" Cristina asked timidly. Burke held her hand in his palms and smiled at her.

"Of course. But… we are not going to the chapel."

"What?"

* * *

 **City Hall, Seattle**

"This is absurd! How can they just change the location suddenly on the wedding day?" Mama Burke, Jane, complained as she got off the car.

"Why does Cristina always has to be such an unpleasant girl?" Helen sighed and asked her husband, who just shrugged and led his wife into the city hall.

Once Meredith saw Izzie, she immediately rushed to Izzie's side and whispered,

"What the hell is going on! Their moms nearly strangled me when I ask them to come with me!"

"I am sorry, but a maid of honour is supposed to handle cranky moms!" Izzie blinked innocently, but it had no effect on Meredith's anger. "Honestly, I don't know what happened either. They sort of stuffed me into a car without explaining."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to witness the wedding of Preston Burke and Cristina Yang. Preston, Cristina, do you have a vow?"

"Everyone, I am sorry for the sudden change of plans. And I do have something to say. As some of you here might know, I actually have a vow prepared. A vow that made one of my friends wanted me to dump my bride." He chuckled as he saw Addison's face blushed, "Cristina, I could promise to hold you and to cherish you. I could promise to be there in sickness and in health. I could say 'till death do us part. But I won't. Those vows are for optimistic couples. The ones full of hope. And I do not stand here, on my wedding day, optimistic or full of hope. I am not optimistic, I am not hopeful. I am sure, I am steady, and I know."

"I am a heart man: I take them apart, I put them back together. I hold them in my hands. I am a heart man. So this, I am sure. You are my partner, my lover, my very best friend. My heart, my heart, beats for you. And on this day, the day of my wedding, I promise you this: I promise you to lay my heart in the palm of your hand. I promise you me."

Burke looked at his mother anxiously, worried that he would see disappointment on her face. Instead, Jane is smiling warmly at her son, seemed to be touched by Burke's vow while Helen is busy wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

"So, please sign here on your wedding certificate and exchange your rings." The commissioner handed Burke and Cristina a pen, the couple exchanged a glance before signing their names on the certificate.

"And here I present to you, Mr and Mrs Preston Burke. You may now kiss the bride."

As Burke leaned his body towards Cristina, he whispered into her ear, "You are supposed to weep because you are so touched."

"In your dreams." She whispered back with a smile on her face before catching his lips with hers.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Special thanks to cristinayang4ever, Patsy and Beth! Thank you for your kind reviews and you guys gave me so much motivation to write!

* * *

Chapter 9

 **2017 3/F On-Call Room, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

"There you are." The door was opened from the outside abruptly. The flashy light beams from the fluorescent shines into the dark room made Burke squinted uncomfortably. He couldn't see clearly who is standing by the door, but he knows her voice.

Cristina flickered on the lights and handed him one of the cups. He took it and sip the coffee.

"It's cappuccino. You remember my taste."

"Because I care?" Cristina rolled her eyes at her ex-husband and replied, referred to their unpleasant divorce.

"Cristina, I…" Burke apparently think of their divorce as well. He sighed and whispered her name. Cristina stopped her before he can finish, as she knows the man is trying to apologize again.

"Stop it. I know what you are going to say. Let's not talk about that again."

Burke nodded obediently. The room fall into silence again. They sipped their coffee in silence and none of them wanted to be the first to talk.

"Meredith… Is she alright?" After what feels like a year passed, Burke finally asked. He has been worrying about Meredith the whole night. He was scared, for the first time in his career, because he nearly killed Meredith: a wonderful colleague, wife of his best friend in Seattle, his ex-wife's person… He was outside Meredith's room when she woke up, but he didn't have the courage to knock. He felt so guilty that he didn't want to speak to anyone, he just want to hide in somewhere dark and punish himself.

"She is fine. I stayed with her until she woke up. She seems great, she was teasing Lexie with Derek when I left." Cristina briefly updated him on Meredith's condition. But she knows that he wanted to hear something else.

"I told Meredith and Derek the whole accident." Burke looked up from his lap instantly, he stared at Cristina, urging her to continue.

"I told them you were scraping the exterior when it happened. You slipped, so the laser scratched the vein and created a laceration. She lost a lot of blood, which makes her heart stopped and went into fibrillation temporarily. But we revived her heart quickly and repaired the tear. Everything is fine afterwards. Burke, they are all surgeons, they understand it. Accident happens, it doesn't mean that you are incompetent or anything. It just means that you are unlucky."

"Look at me." She held his head up to face her, "It is an accident. Anyone doing that surgery could experience the same thing. The thing that matters is that you fixed it."

Burke's hand grabbed Cristina's, he took them away from his cheeks and held them tight. He looked at her, hesitated before he speaks.

"I… I am Preston Burke." Hearing the familiar phrase, Cristina couldn't help but rolled her eyes secretly. "I am the best in the field, yet I almost killed Grey. I… I froze when I should be calmly fixing the wound. And I needed help to save her…"

Seeing that arrogant man looking like a vulnerable kid makes her heart ache. Of course she wanted to roll her eyes a thousand times for his arrogance, but that is what she fell in love with. She loved the way he runs the OR like the king, she loves his confidence and his determination. That's why she couldn't stand seeing the man she looked up to being all weak and defenceless. She wanted to cuddle him in her arms, but she shouldn't. He is no longer hers.

Though her body is stronger than her mind, that no matter how many times she told herself she should not hug him, her arms reached out like they have their own thoughts. Her face rested against his back and her arms surrounded his waist firmly. She is sure Burke was as shocked as she is.

Burke's body stiffened as he felt a warm body cuddling him. He gently covered his hands over hers on his stomach. Unlike most Asian women, her hands aren't tiny and soft, but she had the hands of surgeons: long, skinny fingers and big palms. He loved holding them in his palms and entwining his fingers with hers. He closed his eyes and reminisced the feeling of being hugged in her arms. It feels so… right.

"I missed you." She murmured. Normally, the great Dr. Yang wouldn't allow herself to show a bit of her weakness and emotions, especially to the man in front of her, the only man she had ever loved in her adulthood. But it feels so good to lean against him and listen to his strong heartbeat. Burke turned his body around and tugged a strand of her curl to the back of her ear gently.

"I missed you too." He brushed his lips across her forehead lightly. Cristina closed her eyes to savour his kiss. It has been ages since his soft lips landed on her face. It felt… so right, so completed. She had been with other men since their divorce, but none of them feels like him. Her body shivered as he pulled away from her.

"Cris…" He whispered her name, trying to resist his desire of continuing further. She opened her eyes and looked at his gorgeous face, gently sliding her hand on his cheeks.

"Burke… Preston… Did you ever regret… the divorce?"

He frown at her question. She stared into his eyes, he knows that means she is determined for an answer, and she would not back out. Although he knows what she wanted to hear, he didn't say it. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed her lips.

The soft kisses gradually turned into passionate, sexy kisses. He stripped off their scrub tops and her hands travelled on his toned torso, from his muscular chest to his perfect abs, and down to his manhood. He moaned and pulled away the remaining clothing on their body. He landed kisses all over her slim figure and lingered around her neck.

In the exact same room where they started, it feels like their very first time. A trip down the memory lane is always mesmerizing.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Hi guys! Sorry for the late update(again), but the wifi here in Cambodia SUCKS,it took me ages to send an email! Thank you for waiting and please be prepared for the upcoming dramasss!

* * *

Chapter 10

 **2017 3/F On-Call Room, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

Burke was waked by the sound of his pager. He quickly pressed on the button on it to mute the beeping sound and check if the sound woke Cristina as well, luckily she was still asleep. He gently moved Cristina's head away from his arm and stood up from the bed. The page from Bailey, asking him to go to her office. He knows that Bailey is gonna have to talk to him about the surgery sometime, after all he is the lead surgeon and the chief needs to know everything in her ORs.

He covered Cristina's naked body with a blanket and scribbled a quick note on a post-it. He looked around the room, and decided to stick the note on her forehead so she must be able to read it. Then he gently tiptoed his way out the room.

* * *

 **2017 Chief's Office, SGMWH**

"Come in!" Bailey yelled as she heard the knock on her office's door. She quickly practised her sincere smile in front of a tiny mirror before Burke walks in.

"Have a seat, Dr Burke. And I bought you a mocha latte." She grinned a bit too enthusiastically, which made Burke frowned suspiciously.

"Ahm. So, Bailey. About the surgery I did on Grey, I…"

"Ah! Stop. I am not going to talk about that with you."

"You aren't?"

"No! Um, do you like Seattle Pres?"

"What? Uh, yeah, of course. The people there are nice, but as they are not a level one trauma centre, the cases there are a bit too… routine for me. And I don't think they have a lot of gifted residents."

"So, Dr Burke, would you like to resume your place as the chief of cardiothoracic surgery at SGMW?"

"You are offering me a job? What about Cristina? I thought you are naming her chief."

"Well, that was the plan… Do you know Jackson Avery from Plastics? His family is the Harper Avery foundation, and because of Jackson they donated a huge amount of money for us to build a new wing for Cardio, with one condition. That is to bring you, a three times Harper Avery award winner, back to our Cardio department."

"I see."

"So, given that you have some, um, personal issues here, will you still be glad to come working with us?" Bailey looked at her old mentor hopefully.

"I… I am gonna need a few days to think about it. But thank you, for your offer."

"Sure! Just give me a call when you made up your mind."

"Of course."

"Um, another thing is… are you going to stay here until Grey can be discharged?"

"No, I still have patients at Seattle Pres waiting for me to operate on them. But I will come check on Meredith from time to time."

"All right. I hope you will make a wise decision."

* * *

 **2017 3/F On-Call Room, SGMWH**

It was already 10 when Cristina wake up, the post-it note on her forehead is itching her and startled her from her sleep. She pulled the note away from her forehead and read the words on it.

"C,

Now that Grey's surgery is done, I have to return to Seattle Pres. Check on her regularly and call me if anything's wrong.

B."

Cristina crumpled the post-it into a ball and throw it into the bin. What the hell? They had sex the last night and the only thing he wanted to tell her is "check on Grey"? Seriously?

She her hair in frustration, and she kneel down and quickly stuffed the post-it ball into her pocket before heading to the attending's lounge for a bath.

"Yang!" Arizona waved to her once she stepped into the attending's lounge. She approached her curiously and saw Mark, Callie and Lexie next to Arizona.

"What's going on?"

"Mark and Callie suggested that we should hold a baby shower for Meredith. We couldn't have one for Zola, obviously, and no one had the time to care about a baby shower for little Bailey because of the Big Bailey investigation and the whole Owen-Teddy drama… Oops." Callie rambled with a huge grin on her face that she completely forgot that Cristina was involved in the drama as well. By the time Arizona stamped on her foot to stop her, it was too late. But the Latina obviously didn't care much, as she continued her rambling almost immediately.

"Blah blah blah, so we decided to throw one for their little girl. Just that we couldn't agree on the theme. Mark said Derek loves playing princess games with Zola, so they would definitely like a princess theme. Arizona and Lexie wanted the shower to be full of flowers and white dresses. While I think we should go for fantasy. You know, rainbows and fairies and unicorns… I can't imagine how adorable it would be…"

"Her main point is, we want you to decide which theme to use. Since you are Meredith's person, you should know what she will like and what she won't like." Lexie ignored Callie's imagination and said to Cristina. The four people all looked at her and waited eagerly for her answer.

"Honestly? I don't give a crap. And so does Mer. If I were her, I wouldn't even wanted to attend this thing." To their disappointment, Cristina just shrugged and leaned back on the couch. "And last time I check, they are the lesbians, not you Sloan. Stop acting like a woman."

"And start acting like one Yang. Aren't women supposed to be freakishly excited for these things? Babies, parties, cute little dresses, weddings…"

"Ahah. That's called gender stereotype." She shook her head and went to grab a cup of coffee for herself. Then when she turned around, the four of them are all glaring are Cristina with disagreement on their face. "Fine. I give up. Just go with that stupid fantasy theme. Rainbow marshmallows and stuffed unicorns sounds… normal. Sort of."

"And how exactly is princess tea party abnormal?"

"I just happened to hate Mickey and Minnie."

"They are not even a princess!"

* * *

 **2017 Conference Room 1, SGMWH**

"I am so wrong about fantasy theme being normal." Cristina whined to Meredith, who is sitting in a wheelchair and eating a basket of cookies, while she adjust the unicorn bonnet on her head.

"You look good with that." Meredith handed her friend a cookie, but Cristina refused to take it so she stuffed it into her mouth as well.

"Shut up. If it wasn't for… um… fetus, I won't even allow these ridiculous fairy-tale things appear in this hospital."

"You seriously don't want to have one of these? They are good, not as good as Izzie's apparently, but still good."

"Izzie? Why would you suddenly think about her?"

"Because… I am having a girl! If Izzie's still around, she must be so thrilled. She would be burying us in pink dresses and adorable onesies, baking all sorts of desserts, knitting those tiny little sweaters…" Meredith laughed as she imagine Izzie's excitement. But her smile faded quickly, " I have been having a lot of alone time lately, and I keep on thinking what would our lives be like if George and Izzie didn't die."

"The past is the past. And there's nothing we could have done. Life must go on, it's meaningless to relive the past. You are a surgeon, you know that. Plus they died in an attack when volunteering at Africa. I think that makes their death means something."

"I know, I just couldn't stop thinking about it sometimes. Maybe it's the stupid hormones again. Speaking of hormone," Meredith suddenly lowered her voice and whispered, "Is that why you slept with Burke again? Last week the night after my surgery?"

"What? How did… Who told you?"

"Alex. You didn't show up the morning after my surgery. So I asked Alex where have you been and he said you are off screwing Burke."

"Come on! That's Evil Spawn! Why the hell would you believe him?"

"Because I think it's true? Lexie said you have some sort of telepathy with Burke during the surgery, then you disappeared for the whole night. And for the whole week you were alerted whenever someone says his name…"

"Okay enough!" Cristina hissed at her friend's "I told you so" smile. "Alright I slept with him, once. Big deal!"

"Of course it is a big deal! What happened? And what are you two now? Lovers again?" Meredith tried her best to ask for details without revealing it's Derek who wanted the gossip. But obviously Cristina's mind is so stirred up that she didn't pay attention to her friend.

"How would I know! The only thing he said to me after the sex is 'check on Meredith regularly'. Seriously!"

"Would it be wrong if I feel relieved that my surgeon cares about my healing so much?"

"Bitch!"

"What are you two talking about?" Derek kissed Meredith on her cheek gently and flashes his McDreamy smile.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, nothing." Meredith blinked at her husband quickly, promised to tell him more at home.

"Well if you are not saying something important, Meredith and I would like to make an announcement." Derek raised his voice to attract everyone's attention.

"Thank you everyone for this wonderful baby shower. Meredith and I really appreciate it. Thank you. We have something big we would like to share with you all today. We had already thought of a name for our daughter." He gestured for Meredith to say it.

"Her name will be Ellis Carolyn Shepherd. As many of you may already know, Ellis is my mother's name and Carolyn is Derek's mother's name." Meredith smiled warmly as she explain her daughter's name. The guests all seem very excited to hear the new baby's name, and no one saw the chief walked into the room.

"Derek, can I have a moment please?" Bailey whispered to Derek, who nodded and handed her the mic. "Okay everyone, sorry to interrupt at this moment, but I have something very important to tell all of you too."

"Maybe she want to tell us she is pregnant again." Meredith mumbled to her friend. Cristina giggled a bit and replied, "Of course not. I think she is announcing me as the Chief of Cardio officially."

"You do realize that sound egotistical even for you right? Derek said there are numerous applications submitted to compete for the job, you are not our only choice."

"Shut up. Don't be so full of yourself just because you are chief of general surgery now." The little argument ended instantly after Bailey shot the two of them the infamous Nazi's death glare.

"I am here to announce that the funding for our Cardio research centre is officially approved by the Harper Avery Foundation. The centre will be available in October. We are looking forward for our state of the art research centre to be the leading cardiovascular research institute on the west coast, and hopefully bring in gifted residents." Bailey stopped briefly to let her audience applause. "And I am excited to introduce all of you to our next head of the cardiothoracic surgery, Dr Preston Burke."

Cristina's jaw dropped as she didn't heard her name as she expected. Meredith looked at her person worriedly. She knows Cristina worked her ass off the last two years trying to be the chief of cardio, everyone thought she would get the job, she can only imagine how disappointed Cristina may be. Plus the person who took her job away is none other than Burke… She looked at Derek and noticed him grinning for be able to work with his friend again.

 _'Man.'_ She rolled her eyes and sighed.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 **2017 Emergency Room, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

"Code yellow." Shane whispered to his fellow residents as he walked by them and stopped beside Burke.

"Dr Burke, thank you for requesting me on your service. It is my pleasure." He put on a flattering smile and said. Burke looked at him curiously, and replied,

"I picked you because you are specializing in Cardio. It is my responsibility to teach you. Plus I heard from Derek that Dr Yang speaks very highly of you, I would like to see how good you are myself." He grinned devilishly and added, "You and I are gonna have so much fun together."

"Hey. Code yellow today." Jo mumbled as Stephanie put on her trauma gown next to her.

"Still? I thought after a week, Yang should be used to working with her ex and will start to be less grumpy!"

"I thought so too. But obviously she is getting more and more annoyed every day. Last night she kicked me out of bed and drank three bottles of tequila with Alex while facetiming Medusa."

"Lucky for you that Medusa is not ACTUALLY there. Or else they would've kicked you out of the house." Stephanie cracked up loudly and immediately hide her grin when she saw Cristina stepping out from the ER, "Shh… Stop talking now. Yang's here."

"Dr Burke, may I speak with you, a bit more privately?" Cristina stopped next to Burke and asked. He nodded and went to a corner nearby.

"Why did you take Ross under your service today? He has been working with me since he was an intern. I need him in my OR."

"I don't know why you are so disgruntled, but I am the chief of Cardio. If a resident is specializing in Cardio, I have the responsibility to teach them."

"I can teach him! You are not the only… Wait. Are you trying to punish him because you know he slept with me before?"

"You slept with him?" Burke's eyes widen because of the shocking news, apparently he knows nothing about it. Seeing his reaction, Cristina wanted to bite her tongue off for letting out a secret. She has never felt guilty for sleeping with her intern before, not since today. It sounded ridiculous but she feels like an adulterous bitch.

"Um, well, you didn't know it before, and you sure as hell don't need to know any further details." She tried to act like she didn't care, but somehow she didn't have the courage to look him in the eyes. Burke frowned and stared at her, wanted to gain more information before their conversation being interrupted by Meredith.

"Oops, sorry to interrupt, but the ambulances are here. We need the both of you."

"Right, right. What happened?" Cristina felt so relieved as her friend came to rescue her. She bet that Meredith must be snooping since they started talking, but she didn't get mad as Mer saved her from the awkward situation.

"Oh, I heard it's a car crash. A car bumped into a bus. Most of the he passengers in the bus only suffered minor lacerations, while the couple in the car are injured quite severely."

"Shut up Wallace. We wouldn't be here if you drove carefully for once in your life." A woman screamed angrily at someone who seemed to be her husband. Cristina and Meredith exchanged a quick glance and sighed. This must be a long day for them.

"No you shut up. It was you who keeps nagging and rushing me when I drive. You distracted me and send us both here." The husband shouted back at his wife. Just before the wife shoot back, the doctors stepped into the room and distracted her.

"Hi, what's your name? And how old are you?" Meredith asked as Cristina ordered a CT for the woman.

"Tina Miller, I am 36."

"Okay Tina, is there anything that hurt?" Meredith unfastened the belt on Tina's abdomen and palpated it with her hands.

"Um, my legs and my head hurts and I can't breathe very well."

"Just now someone is still screaming at me! I don't think that's breathing not too well!" The husband, Nathan, on a bed nearby added sarcastically.

"You are such a…"

"Stop! Wallace, mind your own business please. Tina, let's focus on your injuries." Cristina stopped the couple from engaging in another fight.

"Tina, your CT shows that you have a broken leg and a few broken ribs. One of the broken rib is pressing on your lung, that's why you can't breathe well. We also found a tiny rupture in your spleen." Meredith showed the patient her CT and pointed out the problematic bits.

"And one more bad news, there is a tear in the pericardium. It's not too big, but I will need to repair it." Cristina added. Tina rolled her eyes and replied dryly, "So I will be cut open in three places? This is just great."

"Uh… We will see you in the OR!" Meredith faked a smile and dragged Cristina out from the room. The two women laughed once they got out from the exam room.

"That woman is difficult."

"I know right?"

* * *

 **OR 5, SGMWH**

"Mrs Miller, we are going to put you under now. Do you want to know how Mr Miller is doing?"

"Is he dying?"

"Uh… no, he suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage and a collapsed lung. It is severe but not life threatening. Our neuro surgeon, Dr Shepherd is very capable and your husband will be just fine."

"Whatever. I don't care unless he is dying." Although Tina claim that she doesn't care, everyone on Earth can notice how her body relaxed once she knew her husband is fine. Meredith gestured to the anaesthesiologist, and pulled Cristina aside for a quick chat.

"I think you are just like Mrs Miller."

"What do you mean?"

"Both of you act like you hate your husband and wanted him to disappear, but deep down you actually care for him a lot."

Cristina glared at Meredith until she hide her smirk. She sighed and pulled away her mask, "I am going to check on a conduit baby now. Page me when you finish."

* * *

 **OR 2, SGMWH**

"Burke?" Cristina held a mask in front of her face and asked. Burke turned around and saw her staring at him. Derek, who just took out a piece of blood clot from the man's brain, waved to her happily with a pair of forceps in his hands.

"Can I help you?"

"Um, you done with his surgery?"

"Not yet, but it is a simple, textbook procedure, so I should be done in a few minutes. What do you need?"

"One of my conduit babies is having some complications. I need Shane scrub in with me."

"Dr Yang, you know how much I love working with you on the trial, but with all due respect, I really want to learn from…" Shane tried to free himself from the mysterious fight of the ex-couple, but his voice faded gradually as Derek keep warning him to shut up with those dreamy eyes.

Burke took a look at Shane and nodded, "Ross, go. I don't need you here."

The resident sighed and removed his gown and gloves. As he walked by, Cristina shot him an angry glare for his obvious disappointment just now.

After the fuss in the OR, Derek took away his headlamp and grinned. "Are you two competing over a resident now? Mm. It's like watching those soap dramas where parents compete for the son's attention."

"Shepherd, if I were you I would keep my comments to myself." Burke finished his suture and left the OR without saying another word.

Derek shrugged and carry on with the closing. "Stubborn, aren't they?" He mumbled to himself and smiled behind his mask.


	12. Chapter 12

**2017 Surgical Ward 2315, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

"We have evacuated the blood clots in Mr Miller's brain and repaired is lungs. To facilitate your recovery, we strongly advise you to start taking small walks. Mrs Miller, you may need to help Mr Miller." Derek explained to the couple with his McDreamy smile on.

"You heard the doctor." The wife put down the magazine she was flipping and talked to her husband, "Get your ass out of the bed after lunch."

"If you don't want to spend your day here, you can leave." The husband refuse to back down. Noticing a new round of argument is going to begin, Derek tip toes out of the room and sighed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jackson, who is chatting with the hospital lawyer, asked curiously as it is quite rare to see a frustrated Derek Shepherd.

"The Miller couple. They are such…"

"A pain in the ass?" Jackson immediately filled in the blank for Derek, "Grey whined about them for the whole morning. Do you know what is going on between the Millers?"

"No. But there's one thing I am very sure: they love each other."

"Seriously?"

"Of course. Although they claimed to hate each other, they still care about the other's injuries. I can't think of a reason for people to do that except for love."

"Did anyone ever told you that you are such a romantic?"

"I take that as a compliment, thank you."

When Derek and Jackson are joking with each other casually, a scream erupted from Mr Miller's room.

"Oh my god! Wallace! What happened! Somebody help us!"

The two surgeons immediately rushed into the room to check on the couple.

"Mrs Miller! I need you to calm down and tell me what happened." As Jackson is doing exams on the man, Derek grabbed the woman's shoulders and try to get some information from her.

"I… I don't know… I was just, I was helping Wallace get up from bed for a walk. He was fine just now, but once he took a few steps, he… he moaned and he collapsed. He was fine before!" Tina was apparently in shock that she couldn't get her words straight.

"Avery, what do you think?"

"I don't know, let's get him a CT first. Do you think it is a stroke?"

"Possible, since he suffered from a brain trauma. Okay, you take him for a CT first, I will be here with Mrs Miller. Page me once you know anything."

* * *

 **CT exam room, SGMWH**

"Avery you paged Cardio?" Cristina yawned as she walked into the room. She had just finished a 10 hours surgery when her pager squealed.

"It's Wallace Miller from the car crash. You know him right?" Jackson continued after he got a positive nod from Cristina. "He collapsed when he tried to get off his bed and start walking."

"Mm… It seems like pulmonary embolism to me. Let's get him to an OR, I will try to take it out."

"What is the successful chance?"

"According to the size of the clot, I am not that hopeful."

"Anyway, try your best to take it out first. I will go update his wife. Do you need a resident to help you?"

"Yes. Get me… um… Wilson. She had very few cardio hours."

"Alright."

* * *

 **OR3, SGMWH**

"Wilson, what are you doing by the door? Get over here and learn something." Cristina yelled to the resident who is standing by the door, deciding whether or not to go near the OR table.

"Yes Dr Yang. I was just thinking, um, why you asked for me since I am specialising in Ortho…"

"Because your cardio skills are so poor that you will not be able to pass the board. Therefore it is my responsibility to train you more now, so that you won't lower our overall passing rate."

"I am very honoured to have the opportunity learning from you Dr Yang." The resident faked a smile and replied. She knows that Cristina is still not in a good mood due to her ex-husband's existence, and she knows even better not to poke her angry boss.

"Cut that fake enthusiasm crap. Now tell me, what are we looking at?"

"Em… there is a blood clot in the artery of the lungs, so I think it is pulmonary embolism.."

"How to treat it?"

"In serious case like Mr Miller's, we should do an embolectomy with catheter first. If we failed, we can open him up and do the embolectomy with conventional way."

"Mm. Not bad… Damn, this clot is too big, I can't take it out by catheter. Okay people, I need to open him up." Cristina quickly pulled the catheter out and decided to change to a more conventional way. She peeked at the clock, praying for some more time to save the man.

"Wilson, get over here and help me take the clot out."

"Wow! It's huge! That's why the whole artery is blocked." Jo couldn't help but squealed as she saw the clot. Cristina shot her a look, "Yeah. Go check the pupils."

The resident went to the man's side and gently flipped his eyelids open. She sighed as the man's pupils are already dilated, "Dr Yang, we are too late. He is brain dead."

"Damn." She pulled away her scrub cap frustrated and started scribbling on the chart.

"Em, so what do we do now?"

"Go page the on call neurosurgeon for brain dead exams, and prepare yourself to go talk to the poor wife."

* * *

 **Conference room, SGMWH**

"What do you mean? So he is dead now? He was fine a few hours ago!" Mrs Miller wiped away her tear and said. Jo immediately handed her the whole box of tissue.

"I am sorry, but yes your husband is dead now. He suffered from something called pulmonary embolism. A clot is formed in his legs when he stayed in bed. When he stood up, the clot travelled to his lungs and blocked an artery. Therefore his brain couldn't get enough oxygen for a period of time, which killed his brain cells. We caught it fast enough, but the clot is too big. I am very sorry for your loss."

"But… he can still breathe! And his heart is still beating!"

"It is the machine. There are machines that help him breathe and keep his heart beating, but as soon as we remove the machine, all those will stop." Lexie explained patiently, "Therefore you have two choices now: you can either keep him hooked to the machines and hope for miracles, or you can pull the plug and donate his organs."

Cristina silently kicked her and gave her a glare, accusing her for being so "aggressive" on a widow. Lexie shrugged and returned Cristina a look. The wife thought for a while and said,

"I understand my options, I am a social worker, I know the drill. It's just… hard for me, to accept the fact that my husband is gone, forever. He was fine 3 hours ago, talking, eating, walking… 3 hours later you guys are here, announcing to me that he is dead, and asking me to consider donating his body parts… It is hard for me.

"And the hardest thing is… the last sentence he heard from me is 'Move your stupid ass'. We were fighting, before we injured in the car accident. We were fighting because he spent the money we saved for an European trip for a diamond ring, a beautiful, stunning diamond ring. He got it for me as my 7th year anniversary gift. I loved the ring but I was mad at him for spending that money, so we argued. How stupid are we? We spent a week at arguing while instead we could use it to love each other a bit more.

"I never get to tell him how much I loved the ring and how grateful am I for the gift. Everything is too late, and I am never gonna have the chance to tell him how much I loved him again."

Mrs Miller finally lose control of her tears and started to sob. The two surgeons poked at each other, not knowing what to say. Fortunately, Mrs Miller gathered herself pretty quickly,

"Wallace is… was a very kind-hearted person who enjoyed helping people a lot. He would be very pleased to know that I have donated all of his organs. Where should I sign on the paper?" She grabbed the piece of paper on the table and quickly scrawled her name onto it. Just before she leave the room to be with her husband one last time, she muttered to Cristina and Lexie, "Remember, love the person you love when you still have time. Or else everything will be too late, and the only thing you will get is a lifelong of regret."

* * *

 **Burke's Apartment, Seattle**

"Damn it, I am doing it." Cristina mumbled to herself before pressing the door bell of Burke's apartment.

Mrs Miller's words have been buzzing inside her head the entire afternoon. "Love the person you love when you still have time." She couldn't stop but thinking of Burke and herself.

No matter how many times she denied, she knows damn well that she is still in love with the man. She tried to move on, but every man she had been with is constantly being compared the Burke, and obviously, no one is half as good as him, not even Owen Hunt. Therefore she is quite sure that he is the love of her life. Though she always make fun of Derek for being a romantic, she actually believes that a person could only be happy when they are with their soulmate.

Now she has found her love of the life, she is not gonna waste anymore time pretending to be over him. And the only question left is…

"Cristina? What are you doing here?" Burke opened the door and found Cristina standing outside of his door. He raised his brows startled.

"I, uh, Mr Miller from the car crash died. Post op PE." Once the words flew out from her mouth, she regretted almost immediately. ' _Seriously? Cristina Yang? that's the best you can do?'_

"Oh, I am sorry. Are you here only to tell me this?"

"No! I mean, um, his wife, Mrs Miller, said the death of her husband taught us to love the person we love when we still got time. So, um," She took a few deep breaths before getting to her point. "I want to tell you that, that I am still in love with you. And I wonder whether you think the same about me."

Burke was completely shocked by the sudden confession from his stubborn, emotionless ex-wife, but before he can say anything, a sweet, feminine voice came out from the apartment.

"Preston? What's taking so long? Dessert's ready!"

Both Burke and Cristina froze upon the voice and stared at each other's face blankly.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Wow thanks for the reviews! They really lightens me up and motivates me to write! As always please read and review! I would be thrilled to know what you guys think as I am still figuring out how to continue with the story.

* * *

 **2017 Alex's house, Seattle**

"Can you tell me once again why you need me here? I have two children at home with my occasionally-brainless neurosurgeon husband, a baby growing inside of me and an exhausting day job. I really need to sleep. So if you are dragging me here in the middle of the night for nothing, I am really going to castrate you. Seriously."

Meredith whines as Alex dragged her upstairs. She was at home having a belated princess tea party with Zola when Alex suddenly show up on her porch and pulled her away from her dream house, claiming that she is the only person that can save the day.

Therefore, Meredith left the kids with Derek, who knows almost nothing on how to take care kids, at home while she hurried to her old house. She was so annoyed by the situation and has been bitching at Alex throughout the car ride.

"Its Yang. She came home very late tonight, which I obviously don't care, but she crawled onto my bed and kicked Jo out of bed. I asked her what happened, but she didn't say a word. Now she is on MY bed drinking MY beer. So yeah, I think it is something important." Alex replied sarcastically. Although he pretended to be annoyed by Cristina, she is still someone important in his life. So of course he is worried, something huge must have happened if his friend is acting so strange.

"Did... she cried?" Meredith frowned and asked.

"No, but she is singing. I think she is drunk."

"'That is not her being drunk!" Meredith pushed Alex to the side and ran up the stairs immediately. She snapped the bedroom door open and saw Cristina singing loudly while pouring beer into her mouth. She quickly climbed onto the bed and took the bottle from her.

"What's wrong with you? Tell me."

Cristina only peeked at her for a second, then she began to sing even louder, trying to overlap Meredith's voice.

"Dude, seriously, you are scaring us. Just spit it out. Its not like you've killed someone right?"

"Alex!" Meredith hissed and resumed talking to Cristina, "Lexie said you loss a patient today, is that why you are acting so strange?"

Cristina's singing stopped when Meredith mentioned Mr Miller. Instead she glared at Alex and Mer silently, after successfully creeping the both of them put, she finally decided to talk.

"Mr Miller died because of post op PE. There's no way we could have predicted it."

"Well, then great! You didn't kill the man! So what's with the singing?"

"His wife said to us, that the death of her husband taught her to love the person we love when we still have time."

"Fair. My mother used to say that too." Alex nodded and as soon as he realized the two women are staring at him strangely, he explained annoyed. "My schizo mom is normal from time to time. Anyway, so?"

"So I went to Burke and told him I love him."

"You what!" Meredith screamed because of shock. She has always knew that her person is a very decisive person who would not hesitate before action. However, she never thought Cristina would be that decisive, especially when it comes to relationships. 'Derek must be thrilled to hear this.' She thought to herself.

"And then? Can you spit it all out at once, please?" Alex rolled his eyes annoyed. He is never a patience person, especially when it comes to gossip.

"He… he didn't really give me any response." Cristina sighed before continuing, fear that her friends' eyeballs might fall out from the orbit. "There's a woman in his apartment. To be exact, a friendly, classy, gorgeous woman."

* * *

 **Few hours ago, Burke's Apartment, Seattle**

"Burke? Oh! You have a guest! Hi, I am Edra." The woman arrived at the door and is surprised by the presence of Cristina. She quickly pulled a heart-warming smile and reached her hand out to Cristina.

"Cristina. Yang." Cristina grabbed her hand and gently shake it. Her mind was absolutely blank and didn't really know how to react. She glanced at Burke and found him looking at the two women emotionlessly.

"Edra, could you give us a moment please?" Burke smiled and asked. Edra nodded and went into the apartment with a meaningful smile on her face.

"Cristina, I…"

"No it's… it's okay. I see that you have found a nice woman now. Good for you. Really. Um, just forget what I said. I am probably traumatised because I lost a patient." Before Burke can say anything, Cristina quickly interrupted him. Then she immediately ran into the elevator, praying for the door to close faster and end this ridiculous drama.

Once the door closed and Burke's face disappeared, she squatted and hid her face in her palms. What the hell did she do? Did she just humiliated herself in front of her ex-husband, who she still loves, and her ex-husband's new girl friend? Speaking of which, his new girl friend is almost "perfect" in terms of the standard of the Burke family: tall, gorgeous, mother-like, cooks well… She is exactly the kind of women Burke wants at the first place.

Cristina Yang isn't someone who would often feel incompetent, but at this moment, she felt like a total failure. And all she wanted to do is drink. Binge drinking, Meredith Grey style drinking. Therefore she drove home as fast as she could and crawled onto Alex's bed with a dozen bottles of beer.

* * *

 **2017 Lobby, SGMWH**

"Hold the door please!" With Bailey in the car seat and Zola dragging the lap of his shirt, Derek hurried to the escalator and found none other than Burke. After he settled Zola, he gave Burke a mysterious smile.

"Hello uncle Preston!"

"Hi Zozo." Burke kneeled down and kissed Zola on her forehead, in exchange he got a sweet smile from the little girl. Then he looked at Derek and frowned, "What are you staring at? You're creeping me out."

"I heard."

"Heard what?"

"Last night? You and Cristina? Meredith told me all about it." Derek smirked devilishly at his friend, who looked defeated after hearing what Derek has said.

"Meredith told you? She sure Cristina would allow her to tell you?"

"I don't think that is the first thing she had in her head right now."

"Anyway, that's not what you think so quit smiling at me like a perv."

"Then tell me what happened!"

Burke stared at Derek suspiciously, but finally he gave up resisting, so he covered Zola's ears and whispered.

"Edra, aka the woman in my apartment? She is my college buddy's second wife. He was visiting Seattle, originally we wanted to go have dinner at a nice restaurant, but they are full-booked, so he suggested to have dinner at my place and Edra can show us her cooking skills." Burke sighed and continued, "And when Cristina was at my door, Edra came out to tell me dessert's ready. That's all, nothing's happening, but apparently Cristina thinks that Edra is my new girl friend, as she escaped without allowing me to say a single word."

"Mm. So you actually wanted to explain. So you still love Yang." Derek nodded and used a statement instead of a question. _"Of course you are, even a blind can see it."_ He added in his head secretly.

"I am not YOU Shepherd. I don't propose and marry someone without knowing that person is the love of my life." Burke smirked slightly as he saw Derek made an "Ouch" face. "All I ended is our marriage, not my love for her. I needed her in my life, and she needed me too. But we are better off keeping some distance from each other."

Before Derek can ask further, the door opened and he has to take the kids to daycare. Burke volunteered to help holding Zola's hand, but his phone started ringing once he grabbed Zola.

"Hello? Mama! Why are you calling?" Burke can clearly remember that his mother hated to chat on phone, so it is a huge surprise for him to receive his mother's phone call, especially when she knows he should be working.

"It's fine, Preston. I just want to let you know that your father and I are coming to Seattle."

"What? You are visiting Seattle? When?"

"We will be flying in on next Monday. You don't need to come pick us up, a dinner will be fine. Oh, remember to bring Cristina with you, it has been a long time since I last saw her."

 _"Crap."_ It is the only thing in Burke's mind right now. It has been five years since their divorce, yet he still didn't have the courage to tell his mama about it, as Jane is a very very traditional woman who will never be able to tolerate her son getting a divorce. At first he thought his Mama will ever bother to ask about Cristina so his secret can stay in the dark forever, but as his Mama started to accept Cristina as a family member… maybe it's time for him to tell the truth.

"Mama, actually, I…"

"I've got customers walking in. Talk to you later. I love you."

"I love you too, mama." Ending the phone call, Burke felt like the whole world is becoming black and white to him. He would never disappoint his Mama, so he only got one choice left. After making up his mind, Burke walked towards the closest nurse's station and said,

"Page Dr Cristina Yang from Cardio for me. No, page her using Dr Meredith grey's name, tell her it is 911 emergency and ask her to meet me at the dark room. Yes, just do as I say, she will understand what I mean."


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Okay so it has been a whole week since my last update. Really sorry about that but I was kinda having a writer's block lately... What I want to say is that this chapter may not be as interesting as the previous chapters, I will try to edit it once I have a bit more inspirations:) Oh and thank you for all the reviews, I grin like an idiot whenever I got a new review XD

* * *

Chapter 14

 **2017 3/F Store Room, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle  
**  
"Mer? You here?" Cristina gently pushed the door of the dark room open. It has been the secret gathering room of Meredith, Alex and Cristina since the time when Meredith "disappeared" with baby Zola. They will only page each other to this room when there are real emergencies.

"Mer? Say something!" Cristina looked between every shelves annoyed and finally found someone sitting on the old gurney, but it wasn't Meredith.

It was Burke, the last person she would like to see in this world now. Almost immediately, Cristina turned around and headed towards the door, but her waist was grasped tightly by Burke that she couldn't escape. Knowing that struggling would only be a waste of her strength, Cristina gave up and allowed him pulling her to sit down on the gurney.

"Cristina." He called her name slowly with his deep, gentle voice that stirs her heart every time. Cristina couldn't help but recalled last night's incident. The realization of the man next to her is now belonging to another woman made her heart and her body ache, like a part of her body is being cut off, just like when she lost their baby. She can feel that tears are ready to run down her cheeks at any time, fear that he would see her weakness, she bit her lips as hard as she could to hold them back.

"I am sorry for what happened last night." Burke gently whispered into her ear, made it even harder for Cristina to refrain her tears. He pushed a strand of her curls to the back of her ear and slowly continued, "But it is not what you think. She was..."

His explanation was interrupted by Cristina, who sniffed her nose and said, "No. Don't tell me anything about that. I don't want to know. Like I said last night, I am happy that you have a wonderful woman by your side now. So how about we keep everything strictly professional? You don't need to tell me anything about your love life and I won't say anything stupid to you again." Ignoring the burning pain in her heart, she lied about her feelings. Pretending that she doesn't love him anymore is the hardest lie she has ever told in her life. Although no one, including herself, would believe her lies, it does makes her feel better, at least saving herself some dignity.

Burke sighed upon hearing what she said. From the tears holding back in her eyes and her lips turning pale because of the biting, he knows that she must be lying. But he also understands her: last night must be so humiliating and shameful for her, Cristina Yang, the proud and arrogant cardio goddess. So why does he need to poke on her wound? She will come ask him when she is prepared to know. Therefore he swallowed back his prepared speech and changed to something more… urgent.

"We don't need to talk about last night. But I do have one personal request." Cristina gazed at Burke strangely, which made him feel a lot guiltier for what he is going to ask her to do.

"My mama is visiting Seattle next week with my dad. She want to have dinner with you."

"Sure. I can do that for you. Every night next week is available for me."

"Um, thanks. But there's a little something more to the dinner."

"What is it?"

"Uh, I still haven't tell my mama about our divorce. So she still thinks that we are… um, married."

"What the hell?"

* * *

 **A week later, Jack's Restaurant, Seattle**

"Preston! Cristina! It's so nice seeing the two of you." As soon as Cristina and Burke entered the restaurant, they can already spot mama Burke waving at them with an unusually huge grin. She hugged and kissed both of them in the cheeks, which actually terrified Cristina as she had never been welcomed so… warmly by Jane Burke before. She secretly pinched her thigh to remain a polite smile on her face.

"Yes, Mrs… Mama. It has been a long time since we last saw you."

"Actually, I had always wanted to come to Seattle to visit the two of you. But I thought we should give the couple some time to themselves." Jane gave Burke and Cristina an ambiguous wink, "So, it's almost 10 years already. Have you two started making a baby?"

Cristina's smile froze on her face as Jane looked at her with her infamous insightful glare. She asked Burke for help by staring at him. Fear that her eyeballs might fall off, Burke immediately begin distracting his mother by handing her a menu.

"Mama, let's not talk about that now. How about we order some food first?"

"Good… Good idea!" Cristina grab the menu and pretend to be having trouble ordering. "Mama, do you want to have lobster? I remember that Bur…Preston love the lobsters here."

"Yeah, sure. Let's have lobsters then." She smiled at Cristina and said to her husband, "Donald, did you see them? I am so relieved seeing them so happy together."

"You don't have to worry anymore now." Donald Burke patted his wife's hand and replied.

"This little family will be perfect if they have a baby… Imagine a mini Preston and Cristina running to us…" Jane started describing the ideal future she had always had in her head. Apparently she is not going to give up on baby talks.

"Mama. Daddy." Burke sighed and gave them a disapproved look. "We… really don't have plans for a baby yet."

"Preston, if it were 10 years ago, we would understand that as Cristina is still beginning her career. But it is 10 years already. The both of you are prestigious surgeons now so isn't it time for you two to think about building a family? "

"Um, Mama, it is not Bu…Preston's fault. It is me who doesn't want a kid. I mean, I like children, but I don't want to be a mother. It is not related to my career, and there isn't a sick, twisted story behind. I am just not in favor of the idea of being a mom."

Suddenly, it feels like a flock of rain clouds is hovering over the table, Jane frowned even harder when she heard Cristina's confession. In her conventional mind, she couldn't possibly understand why a person would refuse to have kids. She was about to start another speech on accusing Cristina for being selfish and cold-blooded as the waiter bring the family their food. The two men heaved a sigh of relief and thank the waiter for interrupting the upcoming argument. Although they both know that Jane will look for opportunity to give her huge, birth-encouraging speech someday, it is better to be not happening over the dinner table.

The family finished their dinner in silence and was about to go home. Burke walked his parents to his car, when Jane suddenly made a request.

"Preston, Cristina, would it be okay for us to spent a night at your place?"

The younger couple stared at each other, fear that Jane Burke has figured out their secret. After a brief moment, Burke finally answered,

"Yeah... Yeah! Of course! It is our pleasure to have you two with us for the night."

As he speaks, he didn't forget to poke Cristina gently to remind her putting on an enthusiastic smile.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

 **Few days ago, Burke's Apartment, Seattle**

"Yang you are really so damn stupid. How come you would let him trick you into this crappy drama?" Alex hissed as he dragged a huge box into Burke's apartment. He still couldn't understand why Cristina would be willing to cooperate with Burke and lie to Mama Burke. He also couldn't understand why he would be assisting Cristina to "move" into Burke's apartment when he could be cuddling in bed with Jo the whole day.

"For the record, I am just doing a charity case. Mama Burke has heart disease. She cannot be irritated. I am just helping out." Cristina replied annoyed after she kicked an empty box away.

"Hey watch out! I am growing a baby here!" Meredith dodged away from the paper box in a rather impressive speed for a pregnant lady. She sat down on one of the boxes and said, "Seriously, if I were you, I won't even listen a single word from him."

"Exactly what I said, have some respect for yourself. Don't make us feel shame for being your friends."

"If you two are only here to mock me, then go away. I don't need you!" Cristina snapped the box from Alex and started to unpack. It was a total mistake asking her two friends helping her to move into Burke's apartment. Well, temporarily.

Everyone in SGMW knows how insightful Jane Burke is, so Cristina and Burke discussed a prefect plan: She is going to move in with him when Mama is in town, in case Jane suddenly wanted to spend a night with them. Therefore, Alex and Meredith found themselves helping Cristina to move on a busy Tuesday morning.

"This is the last time I am going to say this: I am only pretending to be a couple with Burke because we don't want to irritate his mother." Cristina sighed and sat down next to Meredith. "I know I am stupid, but I just couldn't say no when I heard him ask me…"

"Cristina…" Meredith grabbed her person's hands and leaned her head on Cristina's shoulder as Alex patted Cristina's shoulder gently.

Who can understand Cristina's feelings better than them? All of them have had that one person in their life before, the one person that you can never say no to. Derek, Izzie, Burke… they understand how love can make someone stupid.

After a moment of silence, Meredith finally say, "Cristina… Let's finish up here and go out for lunch?"

Just when Cristina is about to nodded, Alex got an idea from nowhere. "Hey wait. We shouldn't be wasting this chance. Let's go see if that woman is really Burke's girlfriend."

"And how exactly can we do that? Sherlock?" Cristina snorted at his ridiculous suggestion.

"If that woman really is his girlfriend, she must have something left in his house. Toothbrush, towel, underwear… anything. Just go look through his things!"

"I will go see the bathroom." Meredith hopped off the box she was sitting on and jogged into the bathroom with Alex following her. Cristina sighed and went into Burke's bedroom. Looking through other people's stuff is not something a decent human being would do, but she really wanted to know what kind of woman Edra is.

She took a deep breath and pulled out one of the drawers, and she immediately noticed something special. It wasn't something that belongs to Edra, she is very sure, because it belongs to her. It is her Stanford hoodie.

Cristina gently picked up the hoodie and flipped it upside down, looking for that familiar patch of coffee stain: there it is. This is definitely her hoodie. But why is it here? She thought she already lost it when she moved to Alex's house.

"Cristina? You found anything?" Meredith's voice appeared behind her suddenly, Cristina turned around startled by her friend. As Alex and Meredith walks into the room, they immediately spotted the bright red hoodie being held in Cristina's arms.

"Isn't that your lost hoodie?" Meredith asked uncertainly.

"That you bitched about for the whole month?" Alex immediately added and got spank on the arm by Meredith.

"Yeah… It is… Turns out it was in Burke's drawer."

"So he took your hoodie? Dude it's kind of sick."

"Alex! I think it's sweet! Look, the only thing we can find in this house that belongs to a woman is your hoodie. I think he still loves you!" Meredith replied with a teenage girly smile. "Damn hormones, I am Kepner now."

"So what are you gonna do? Take your shirt back?"

"No of course. He will realize we looked through his things if I take my hoodie back. I am gonna leave it…"

Before Cristina can finish her sentence, she heard the noise of the lock being opened. Quickly she stuff the hoodie back into the drawer and pretend to be guilt-free. Therefore when Burke walks into his bedroom, the only thing he can see is Alex, Meredith and Cristina sitting on the floor grinning awkwardly at him.

"Uh… what are you guys doing?"

"Nothing!" "Nothing." "Nothing…" All three of them replied almost instantly. Burke frowned suspiciously at their unusual unity.

"Really? Cause you three act like you have some secret schemes going on…"

"It's nothing! Really."

"Anyway, Derek and I planned to go out for dinner. Do you guys want to come with us?"

"It's free right? Then yes, of course we are going. Let's go Yang." Alex grinned happily and dragged Cristina out of the room. Burke looked at the room one last time, feeling something strange happened but he couldn't tell what exactly it is.

* * *

 **Few days later, Burke's Apartment**

"Mama, daddy, you can stay in the guest room tonight." Burke leads his parents into one of the rooms and helped to settle their luggage.

"Mm, this is a nice apartment Preston. I like the decorations here. Well, it is very late already, you two should go and have some rest." Jane kissed Burke and Cristina on their cheeks before closing her door and wink at them suggestively. Burke and Cristina shared a glance, and Cristina whispered awkwardly,

"Uh, I will spend the night in the other guest room…"

"No." Burke interrupted her and whispered back, "Mama will know if you stay in the guest room. Um, I have a couch in my room, you can have the bed."

"It's fine, really. You don't need to… Anyway, we can figure it out later." Cristina steps into Burke's bedroom and couldn't help but found her glance locked at the drawer holding her hoodie.

"Cristina? What are you staring at?"

"Nothing! Em… I am going to have a shower now." She quickly grabbed her things and rushed into the bathroom. She can feel her heart racing as she realized that she is going to spend a night with Burke on the SAME bed.

 _'Stop it Cristina Yang! You are not a teenage girl anymore!'_ She splashed some water onto her face and sighed. It feels so stupid and ridiculous for her to have hope that something's gonna happen.

* * *

When Burke came out from shower, Cristina has already curled up on one side of the bed- the side of the bed that used to be belonged to her. With a faint smile on his lips, he gently climbed up the bed and slowly lay down with his back facing her's, fear that any bigger action would wake her.

"Burke…" She whispered. Actually she didn't have something that she wanted to say in particular. She just wanted to see if he has fallen asleep already.

"Mm?"

"Uh…" Out of her expectation, he is still widely awake. Cristina thought for a brief second, and she decided to ask the question that had been spinning in her head the entire week.

"Why do you have my hoodie in your drawers? The red, Stanford one. Don't tell me it isn't mine, cause I saw that coffee stain on it." She paused and added, "Sorry. For snooping around."

Burke was surprised by her random question. He turned his head around but saw her still lying on her side with her back facing him, so he lied back down and try to make up a reasonable answer.

 _'I took it the day I left our apartment, because I couldn't sleep without you so I need to take something with your scent with me.'_ Of course he is not going to tell the truth. It sounds too much like a pervert. Therefore he decided to go with the most told lie in human history, "I accidentally sweep it into my bag."

 _'Liar!'_ Cristina yells in her mind. That hoodie was inside her wardrobe, there's no way he can "accidentally" put into his bag.

"You asked me one question, so I am gonna ask you one too."

"…Fine. What do you want to know." Cristina rolled her eyes silently. She knows exactly what he is going to ask. Of course he would want to know what makes her sleep with her intern. Like he would want to know something else. But whatever, there's nothing she couldn't tell.

"Tell me about Hunt." She can feel her heart stopped beating for a second. It has been… a long time since she thought about Owen and Teddy.

"Oh I am so not going to talk to you about Owen."

"You asked me a question, and I answered. You owe me one question." _'It didn't sounds like he is going to drop this'_ , she sighed.

After a long silence, just before Burke decided to give up, Cristina started the story.

"Owen… He is the first guy I fell in love with after you. After you left SGMW, Webber hired Teddy Altman as the new cardio chief. She was great, she gave me a lot of autonomy and a lot of opportunities to learn. And Owen was her friend from the army. He pulled out an icicle from my chest when we first met, then I thought I would never see him again. But I was wrong, he was hired by Webber a few weeks later and became the chief or trauma.

"He suffered from PTSD from his last tour in Iraq. No one knows about his condition except me because I witnessed him punching the window once. I accompanied him to the shrink and I tried literally everything to help him get a better night sleep. I even removed the ceiling fan in my room, because that reminds him of helicopters.

"Gradually we developed feelings for each other, but I often have a feeling that his heart is with someone else. I wasn't sure about it, and he keeps assuring me there's no one else. Then one day, his fiancée shows up. Apparently she had no idea he was back in the States. He blows it off with her pretty quickly, but I still got that feeling. I still thinks that he was actually in love with somebody else.

"It was Meredith who saw them kissing in an exam room, Owen and Teddy. Turns out he was in Seattle because of her, and she is the one who convinced him to stay. So I gave him an ultimatum, sort of, it's either me or Teddy. He didn't make a choice. He quitted his job and signed up for a tour to Jordan. Teddy left SGMW a few days later and went to Jordon too. Last year Kepner went to visit them and told us that they are now married."

Burke listened quietly. He is both furious and grateful: furious for that Hunt guy breaking Cristina's heart, but grateful that Hunt didn't took her to a god-knows-where battle zone. He pretended to be as calm as he can be and asked, "Why didn't you follow him to Jordan?"

"… I owe you one question only and I answered that already. I am going to sleep now. So stop talking and be quiet." She answered abruptly. She is so not going to tell him she stayed in Seattle because she still has feelings for him.

"Burke?" After a while, she can hear his breathing become slower and more regular. She murmured his name to check if he is still awake. But nothing answered her except his rhythmic breathing sound. She turned her body around, facing his muscular back.

At this instant, she really wanted to wrap her hands around his waist like she used to do, but she knows that will ruin them.

He may not have a new girlfriend, and he may still have feelings for her, but it doesn't mean they have a chance at starting over. They had been tortured each other throughout their five years of marriage, how stupid a person needs to be to repeat the same mistake? Cristina Yang and Preston Burke are two of the most rational people on Earth, and none of them would allow themselves being WRONG again.

She rest her head on the pillow and stared at his back. Listening to his soothing breathe sound, she slowly dozed off into sleep.

 _All I ask is if this is my last night with you  
Hold me like I'm more than just a friend  
Give me a memory I can use  
Take me by the hand while we do what lovers do  
It matters how this ends  
'Cause what if I never love again?_

* * *

A/N: For those who don't know, the lyrics at the end of this chapter are from Adele's "All I Ask". Lately I just couldn't get this song out of my head! :P


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

 **2017 Burke's Apartment, Seattle**

"Good Morning… Mama, daddy." Cristina's yawn stopped abruptly as she saw the three Burkes looking at her as she step out from the room.

"Come here, we have made breakfast." Donald poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Cristina. She smiled gratefully and sipped it.

"Mm, do you sleep well last night?" Jane asked out of nowhere. Burke swallowed the eggs in his mouth and answered,

"Yes mama, how about you?"

"Oh we are fine too. Did you two… try… again last night?" Jane smiled ambiguously at the younger couple. At first Cristina couldn't understand what she means, but once she saw Donald's attempt at hiding his grin, she immediately understand what does "try again" means and blushed. She quickly bite on her toast to hide the embarrassment.

"Mama!" With the same mysterious redness on his cheeks, Burke growled at his mother, "No we didn't. And please, stop trying to push us. We will figuring it out ourselves."

"I am just trying to tell you that the both of you are not teenagers anymore. You don't have much time left to consider." Jane replied, "Fine, I will drop this. But later when you two go to work, I am coming too."

Noticing the shock in Burke and Cristina's eyes, Jane kindly explained, "Don't worry. I am not going to force you two have sex in the hospital. Which I think you would do without me asking." She smiled satisfyingly as she saw the couple blushing again. "I just wanted to meet Zola and Bailey. I got photos from Carolyn and I have always wanted to meet them."

"Well… That shouldn't be a problem. Daddy, are you coming?"

"Oh, I would love to, but I already have plans. Just show me the photos later."

* * *

 **Lobby, SGMWH**

"Mama, do you want me to show you around the hospital?" Burke peeked at his beeping pager and asked. It is the arrhythmia patient admitted yesterday morning, his residents can handle it.

"Aren't you have work to do? You can go, Cristina can show me around." Jane replied. In fact it is even better for her son to stay away: she is never going to stop encouraging them to have a child. And the only thing that is standing between her and her lovely grandchildren is Cristina's stubbornness. She is going to make very good use of the day.

On the other hand, Cristina is not a moron, of course she knows what Jane Burke is up to. To prevent herself from becoming a murderer, she really needs someone to distract Jane for her. Ignoring the helplessness in her eyes, Burke nodded at his mother and walked towards the cardio wing with a smirk on his lips.

Just as Cristina decided to accept her fate, someone appears to save her day.

"Hey Cristina… Mama Burke! What a surprise!" Meredith, with Zola and Bailey by her side, approaches them.

"Meredith! It has been a long time since I last saw you." Jane smiled at Mer and squatted down to talk to the kids. "They are so much more adorable in person than in the pictures. Carolyn is so lucky to have these amazing grandkids."

Cristina rolled her eyes at Jane's undertone while Meredith couldn't help but giggled at her misery.

"Oh Meredith, how far are you along?" Jane pointed at Meredith's baby bump and ask.

 _'_ _Crap.'_ Cristina thought. _'More sarcasm on the way.'_

"It's my eighth month already."

"It is so amazing right? Cristina, look at your friend! You two are the same age, yet Meredith is having her third baby already! Don't you think you should try and catch up?"

"Haha…" Cristina could only use fake laughs to suppress her anger. She leaned towards Meredith and whispered, "Right now, I hate you."

Meredith ignored her person and suggested, "Mama Burke, how about we go to the daycare and drop off the kids first? Bailey is going to need another bottle soon."

"Sure!"

"Actually…" Jane and Meredith stared at Cristina at the same time, "I have a surgery today. I want to go prep my patient." Cristina finished her sentence and quickly walked towards the cardio wing.

"Well… Then… It's just the two of us now." Meredith grinned at Jane and led her to the escalator.

* * *

 **Daycare, SGMWH**

"Grey! Sorry for asking you to take care of my mother." Burke entered the daycare and saw his mother playing with little Bailey, while Meredith is sitting on the sofa nearby, watching Zola put the pieces of an anatomy model back together.

"It's nothing, really." Meredith smiled at him, "But I do need a favor from you."

"Mm?"

"I left Bailey's diaper bag at home today. Derek brought it to work but he was called into surgery as soon as he arrives. So I need to go down to the parking lot and get it… Can you watch Zola for a while? I promised I will stay with her for the morning, but since you are her favorite uncle… I think she can accept having you instead for me for a while."

"Sure! Hey Zozo, your mommy needs to go get something, do you want to play with me?" Burke sat down on the floor next to Zola and asked. The little girl grinned broadly and handed him a piece of the model.

"Wow, do you actually know all of these organs?" Burke was amazed when he saw Zola putting the pieces to the place they should be without too much struggle. _'Maybe it's a family thing,'_ he thought to himself, _'With Derek Shepherd and Meredith Grey being her parents, the girl is destined to be a surgeon in the future.'_

"Of course!" The little girl said proudly. "This big one is the brain, this one here is the stomach and this is the heart."

"You are such a clever girl you know?"

"And I know that brain is daddy and aunt Amy, you and Aunt Cristina are the hearts." After being praised by her uncle, Zola is even more excited, "Do husbands and wives have to working on the same thing? Like you and Aunt Cristina?"

"No!" Burke chuckled at the girl's question, "Look at your daddy and mommy, they are not working on the same thing right? And you Uncle Mark and Aunt Lexie, they are also working on different things."

"Mm… Uncle Preston, can I ask you something?"

"Of course!"

"Why you and Aunt Cristina are not husband and wives anymore?" This is probably the hardest question Burke has ever received in his whole life. Seriously, he would rather be explaining the quantum mechanics to the seven-years-old. Noticing his surprise, Zola was kind enough to explain, "I heard daddy and mommy talking about you and Aunt Cristina one night. Daddy say that you two are too stupid to know how you really feel."

After mentally cursing Derek Shepherd, Burke decided to give in facing the sparkly eyes of Zola.

"Zozo, have you ever played puzzle before?"

"Yes!"

"Is every piece of puzzle the same?"

"No…?"

"No, they need to be different if they want to be fit together." He smiled and picked up two pieces of the heart and showed Zola what he meant, "But Aunt Cristina and I? We are too similar. We are like two same pieces of puzzle. We couldn't be fitted together. Even if we tried,"

He found another identical piece from the box and tried to squish them together, "It still wouldn't work, because we are not made to be put together. So instead of squishing each other and risk breaking the both, we are better off alone." He put the two pieces in Zola's Palm. Zola looked at the two pieces doubtfully, but Burke was not going to explain further, he just patted Zola's hair gently.

What he didn't notice is, Meredith was standing not too far away, listening at them the whole time. She looked at Burke's back, slightly shook her head and sighed for the two lovers who are so deeply in love but couldn't dare to be together.

* * *

 **Two weeks later, Lobby, SGMWH**

"Your belly is huge. You really shouldn't be walking around." Cristina pressed the button and pointed at Meredith's gigantic baby bump, in returns, Meredith shot her an angry glare.

"What's wrong with you people? This is my second pregnancy and I've given birth before. I know how far my body can handle! So stop trying to put me on bed rest! I can work!"

"Dude, pregnancy hormones are really messing you up." Alex laughed and also got a glare from Meredith. They entered the elevator and Cristina added,

"Yeah… I like a bitchy and slutty Meredith, but now? It is way too bitchy. I want the old Meredith back."

"Stop talking you two." Meredith snapped. She is not feeling very well, but she couldn't tell exactly what hurts. Her brows frowned up and she had to grab Cristina's arm to stay balance.

"Mer? What's wrong with you?"

"Mer are you ok?"

Meredith didn't reply to either of them. Sweat is falling from her forehead and she couldn't say a word.

"Damn, I need to go scrub in with Robbins. Yang can you take Mer to the OB? I will page Derek."

"Yeah sure. Go." Cristina nodded and pressed the button for the OB floor, while Alex stepped away from the elevator to the OR floor.

Cristina tried her best to keep Meredith balance, but it is so hard as Meredith is so weak. She anxiously looked at the display and pray for the elevator to arrive soon. This is certainly the longest elevator ride in her life.

The doors opened, Cristina's head looked up from the floor to the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't the OB floor yet. She cursed the person who pressed the button for the elevator in her head and turns out, it was Burke.

Burke was obviously surprised by what he saw after he entered the elevator: Cristina glaring at him angrily and Meredith, who is pale and sweaty, clutching her belly with one arm and leaning on Cristina for balance at the same time.

He quickly walked into the elevator and asked, "What happened? Meredith, are you okay? Do you need some help?"

"She said she wasn't feeling great just now, but she don't know what is hurting."

"Well, okay. Take deep breaths. The OB floor is about to…" Burke kneel down before Meredith and comfort her. Before he can finish his sentence, the elevator shook and most of the lights went off. They can feel that the elevator had stopped.

"What the hell?" Meredith hissed with all her strength.

* * *

A/N: Surprise surprise... A final cliffhanger here before the final chapter... I just feel like we need a little bit more drama in the end :P


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Hi guys! So this is the last chapter of this story! Thank you for all of your supports and love, I am really really happy to know that this story is being appreciated. I know that probably a lot of you think that this story feel unfinished and still have a lot of undeveloped things. Yes, I understand why you would feel that way, but I want to let you all know that I already have a sequel planning in my head. The reason that I didn't want to continue the sequel here is because I wanted to write the sequel in a slightly different style, so I thought separating the two will be better :P Enjoy the final drama (/disaster)!

* * *

Chapter 17

 **2017 West Wing Elevator, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, Seattle**

"What the hell?" Meredith hissed with all her strength.

This is exactly what Burke and Cristina wanted to scream. Apparently they are now trapped in an elevator. Which, is fine usually, but now with a very pregnant lady who is about to go into labor… It just makes the whole thing so much worse.

"Let me try contact the technicians." Burke leaned his body over the control panel, pressed the emergency button and shouted, "Anyone out there? We need help!"

"I am very sorry. But it looks like we've got some technical problems with the cable of your elevator, so it stopped working." A voice answered almost immediately. Cristina, who is annoyed by the guy's explanation, took over the control panel and shouted,

"Yeah I'm glad you know what's the problem is. But we have a laboring woman here in the elevator, could you find someone to help us?"

"Of course. Our team is on their way already."

"And how long would that take?"

"Eh… I'm afraid you have to wait for, like, thirty minutes to an hour."

"An hour? Then I guess you can probably see four people stuck when you arrive." Cristina said sarcastically and sat down beside the panel helplessly.

"Aw!" Meredith growled and breathe even more rapidly. Cristina and Burke hopped over to her immediately and hold her hand.

"Meredith, just take deep breaths. You can do it. Hold on!" Burke encouraged her as he squeezed her hand. Meredith clutches his hand with hers and said,

"Tell… Tell Cristina… what you said… to… to Zola… ugh! Two weeks… ago… at the daycare… ugh…"

Cristina, who can only barely comprehend what Meredith is saying, looked at Burke suspiciously after she heard her name. Her heart was already beating faster than it should be because of the situation she is in, but now it is beating even faster. Deep down she hopes that he will confess his love for her, but she is scared if she really heard him say those words: what should she say?

They have tried it before, there's no happily ever after in the actual world. They are not living in Disneyland, and not everyone is MerDer. So why take the risk again if they know it is only gonna hurt the both of them?

"I… um…" On the other hand, Burke can never imagine that Zola would have told Meredith what he said… Wait, no. Zola couldn't get what he was talking about at that time, so Zola wouldn't be the one telling Meredith… She must be there herself and overheard what he said. He would never have said those things if he knows that she is there.

Funny how the brain works. This is all he can think of right now. He didn't want to tell the truth, but he knows that Meredith is not gonna let him get away so easily. But then what? He is too arrogant to be rejected by the woman he loves. He looked at Cristina, who is also staring at him, and he blushed a bit.

He cleared his throat, and said, "Last time, I, um, Zola, she asked me why… we were divorced. I didn't want to lie to her, so I told her… that we are too alike, and therefore we couldn't be together."

Cristina frowned. True, people only sees how different they are on the outside and assume they: She is messy and rude, he is freakishly tidy and gentle. She never cooks, but he is a good chef. He celebrates almost every festival, while she never gives a damn for holidays.

They are so so different, yet they are very very alike. They are both a stubborn and arrogant workaholic. They both refuse to change for the other. That's why they are not destined to be together. She smiles faintly, he has always been the one who can pinpoint the problem from a mess.

"You know, that's a full load of crap." Meredith hissed in between her deep breaths. "It is insane to give up the love of your life because you two are such a coward, that you afraid you would end up divorce again. Do you think Derek and I know we are gonna have three children when we started dating? Of course not! Just like surgery, you can only try your best at it but there's no guarantee there is happily ever after. You just have to try. Plus you already divorced once so who cares!"

Meredith released their hands from her palm and leaned backwards against the wall of the elevator, "And now I'm done. Aw! Ugh my contractions are stronger now!"

"Um… What do you want us to do?" Burke and Cristina were still in shock after being screamed at by Meredith, but her screech brought them back to reality. Although this elevator is filled with three experienced surgeons, none of them can confidently say they know what to do.

"Ugh… Check my cervix, see how dilated I am." Meredith tried her best to remember what her OB did last time when she give birth to Bailey. Hearing her words, Cristina and Burke looked at each other immediately.

"No. I am not gonna do vagina exams for Meredith. It will destroy our friendship." Cristina shook her head firmly.

"Well I bet Grey doesn't want me to be the one checking her vagina." Burke smirked as he said, knowing by heart that Cristina will have to check Meredith's cervix.

"He's right. Cristina!" Meredith shouted at her person as she sweep off the sweat on her forehead with the back of her arm. Cristina sighed and accepted her fate. She crawled on the floor and used her fingers to check how dilated is Meredith.

"Mer… You are almost 8cm dilated. I think you may have to give birth in the elevator." Cristina announced. Meredith looked at the ceiling and growled, "Every. Damn. Time! For once can I give birth to a baby normally?"

"It's Seattle Grace Mercy Death." Cristina shrugged and received an angry glare from both Meredith and Burke.

"Okay… If we have to do it here… Then we need supplies. We need towels… or clothes, or any clean fabric." Burke took off his lab coat and proceeded to removed Meredith's. Cristina strip off her coat and her scrub top as well, leaving only an undershirt on.

"We also need disinfectant… Ah, got it. What else?" Cristina looked around in the elevator and found a bottle of alcohol hand rub hanging on the bars in the elevator. She silently thanks Bailey, who made it mandatory to have disinfectant hanging everywhere in the hospital.

"I feel like I have to push now. Do I need to push? Cristina?" Meredith squeezed these words out from between her teeth. Drops of sweat ran down her forehead as a result of the severe contraction pain.

"Hold on! Hold on let me see… Oh… Okay, you are crowning now. Push when I count to three okay?" Cristina quickly looked between Mer's legs and yelled. Burke puts his hands on top of Meredith's abdomen and is ready to help pushing the baby out.

"One, two, three…" Cristina counted and Meredith tried her best to push. Her body falls back as she gasped for air.

"Meredith? You need to push again now. We need to get this baby out fast."

"I can't do this… I need Derek! I can't do this without him! Derek!" Meredith cried and tried to stand up, luckily Burke stopped her immediately. Cristina leaned forward and said,

"Think of what you will be telling if you were me. You would say 'You can do it, you have to do it. If you quit this baby will die and everything we did before will be wasted. You can do it.'" She gently wiped away the sweat on Meredith's forehead and continued, "You. Can. Do. This. Alright?"

Meredith nodded and tried to push once again. This time half of the baby's head is out. With one more push, the beautiful baby girl landed in Cristina palms. Burke handed her one of the scrub tops to wipe the baby's face. She tickled baby Ellis's tiny foot, but nothing happened. The baby didn't cry.

"Why is she not crying?" Cristina whispered. Meredith is still exhausted from the childbirth and haven't noticed her baby daughter isn't crying. Of course Cristina wouldn't want to startle her for not reason.

"It's not uncommon for newborns with congenital heart defects to have breathing problems. Mm… We don't have intubation kit here, start CPR right away."

Cristina nodded and started to do compressions on the baby girl's chest with two fingers. She counted silently as she pressed the tiny little body firmly. Her eyes wandered off and landed on Meredith. She was being comforted by Burke, but she couldn't stop looking at her newborn daughter and sob.

 _'_ _Please, please, get someone here and get us out of this stupid elevator. Please, give this baby girl a chance to see the world, meet her parents and siblings…'_ Cristina looked at the tiny body in her arms. The lovely pinkish colour is fading from her cheeks. As a cardio surgeon, Cristina knows that they need to get out of here immediately if they want the baby to survive. She felt so helpless, she is the godmother and the doctor of baby Ellis, yet all she can do is praying. Like god would listen to someone who has been trash-talking him for 37 years…

Just when Cristina started to allow her hopelessness swallow her, the lights in the elevator flickers and all of them lighted up seconds later.

"Grey? Yang? Are you there?" It was Bailey. She was slapping on the door and yelling. "Karev says you two should be on the way to OB, but they said you guys never showed up… Are you alright?"

"Oh we just wanted to find a nice quiet place for picnic. We have never felt so good before… Of course we're not!" Cristina yelled back sarcastically. Burke chuckled slightly and decided to bring everyone back to the right track.

"We don't have much time left, can you just break the doors and get us out? Ah, and bring an incubator, oxygen and Karev."

"Yeah… Of course. We are almost done with the doors…" Bailey replied. Moments later, the doors have been pulled apart, and a group of surgeons are already gathering around. When everyone is still trying to figure out what to do, Alex barged into the elevator with the incubator and scooped baby Ellis away from Cristina's arms.

"She is cyanosed! We have to take her up to NICU right away. Take care of Mer." He dropped these words and quickly entered another elevator. The others helped Meredith to get on a gurney and Derek hugged his wife tightly, owed that his wife got away with another crisis safely.

"Derek." Meredith murmured. Derek nodded at her for her to continue, "I am never, ever going to have another baby. Do you hear me?"

Derek laughed and pushed her gurney to the OB floor for post-labour follow-ups. The other audiences started to return to their own position, while Cristina and Burke was still standing in front of the elevator.

"The elevators here must be cursed. I think I am gonna take the stairs." She walks toward the staircase but Burke stopped her midway.

"I… um, have a favourite restaurant in Seattle. Do you wanna go to dinner with me?"

Cristina's mind went blank for a second, then she grinned uncontrollably once her brain reminded her that she had heard the exact same line before, "Wow. You really only have one pick up line!"

Pushing the doors to the staircase open, she added, "Meet me at the lobby at 7."

Burke stared at her back and grinned childishly. This time he is not going to make the same mistakes as he did last time. Like, maybe he should order steak this time?

 **THE END**


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